1985-87

“A consummate blend of the Ariel and the Mephisto of music”

(A review of a performance of Schubert/Liszt songs at the Kennedy Centre, Washington DC)

A review of a performance of Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude

Schedule

In an interview with Daniel Cariaga for the Los Angeles Times, 7 February 1985, Bolet gave a glimpse of his schedule. In the summer he was going to Fort Worth (the Cliburn Piano Competition) for his last appearance as a judge (a role which he had now come to hate – ‘Include me out’, he once quipped, borrowing a phrase from legendary Hollywood film producer Sam Goldwyn). The winner of the Cliburn that year was José Feghali (Brazil), who had been in the Rachmaninoff 3 masterclasses in Edinburgh in 1984. Bolet will then fly from Texas to Paris for recitals in the Theatre de Ville: five one hour programmes. Then he will return to San Francisco for three or four days. Following this, he has a recital in Salt Lake City; then back to his home in Mountain View, California. Then to Australia for a 7 week tour with 25 concerts tour. Finally back to Atlanta, Georgia USA to begin their winter season.

In 1984/5 Jorge cut his programme schedule down to 12/13 concertos and 2 recital programme, one of which was a selection of Debussy's and Chopin's complete preludes (Op.28).

Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4)

Jorge departed San Francisco 9pm on Thursday 27 June on Qantas, arriving via Honolulu in Sydney on Saturday morning.

The insides of the Qantas planes in those years had murals of Captain James Cook, British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular.

He intended to go not just 'farther than any man has been before me, but as far as I think it is possible for a man to go'.

Fraser Ave., King's Park, Perth, Australia

Australian tour, July & August 1985

Brisbane, Geelong, Melbourne, Canberra, Newcastle, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Tasmania. Concertos in Sydney were marked down to be with Sir Charles Mackerras, but unfortunately he was taken ill, and the conducting fell to distinguished Brucknerian Georg Tintner and Patrick Thomas. The music-making was in both Town Hall and the Opera House.

Mackerras explained to Bruce Duffie: 'I suddenly got hepatitis and had to cancel 30 concerts in Sydney. Because it was my last year as Musical Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, I had chosen all my favourite works, and the works which I hoped would round off my very enjoyable period. I couldn’t do it; I lost the whole thing.'

At the end of the tour, JB and his business partner Mac Finley both departed Sydney on Sunday, 18 August for Hong Kong on Qantas.

Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, 11 July 1985

The Canberra TImes (Saturday 13.7.85) offers a review by W.L. ("Bill") Hoffmann.

'Sparkling virtuosity matched by warm, romantic expression in the music of Chopin, Rachmaninov and Liszt were the ingredients in a notable ABC recital given by pianist Jorge Bolet in Llewellyn Hall on Thursday night. It was playing which brought back memories of such legendary pianists as Paderewski, Friedman and Levitzky whom I was fortunate to hear in my youth.

This video has sound:

1986 The Liszt Anniversary Year

This year marked the 175th anniversary of the birth and the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Liszt (1811-1886).

The great Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel defended Liszt's music in several centennial tributes. The most important of these, The Noble Liszt, maintains that Liszt and Haydn are two of the most frequently misunderstood major composers.

'In old age, Haydn reigned over the musical world as its undisputed leading light. For this, the nineteenth century punished him - as it punished Liszt for his undisputed supremacy as a performer.'

Among awards to prominent Lisztians, those presented on behalf of the Hungarian People's Republic

(Magyar Népköztársaság) during 1986 deserve special mention. At a reception in Washington, D. C., Franz Liszt Commemorative Medals were awarded to fifteen performers, scholars, and editors - among them Jorge Bolet, André Watts, Fernando Laires, Frank Cooper, Maurice Hinson, and the British scholar Alan Walker, who had recently written a definitive biography in 3 volumes.

Liszt, Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude

Monday, 3 February 1986: a recital in Hanley Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK. This is the home of the pottery industry in England. Famous companies such as Royal Doulton, Spode and Wedgwood (founded by Josiah Wedgwood) were established and based there. Schumann’s Carnaval was on the programme, but 'we are also promised Chopin and Liszt, and the Liszt, especially, could set the notes ricocheting'.

Staffordshire Sentinel, 30 January,1986

'Playing his own piano, a magnificently resonant Bechstein, Jorge Bolet gave a recital of immense but controlled power in Hanley's Museum Theatre last night. An early example of Bolet the spellbinder came

in Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude.'

“Cynics sneer that Liszt's religion was more religiosity, but this piece,

as interpreted last night, touched levels of visionary contemplation

usually associated with late Beethoven.”

Of the many tributes to Jorge Bolet's playing that I've read in the course of research over many years,

the above statement is one of the most most affecting. It was written by Eric Snape for the Staffordshire Sentinel, 4.2.1986). Mr Snape retired in 2007 after a career on the newspaper spanning six decades. And as for me, this is the recording by Jorge Bolet that I would take to that proverbial desert island, to recall the great magic of his playing.

LIszt, Bénédiction de Dieu

Retires from Curtis, 1986

It was in February of this year that Bolet left his post as Head of Piano at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. His letter of resignation is dated 11 February 1986, and is addressed Mrs Cary William Bok, President [1977-88], Board of Directors.

‘During the last few years my career as a performing artist has undergone a considerable change with ever increasing demands upon my time and energies for more performances and recordings.’ He mentions tours and DECCA Records. ‘In view of my present status as one of the few remaining elder statesmen of the great romantic tradition, I feel I must devote my time to my performing career.’

He received a most gracious reply from the President (signed ‘Stormy’ – the maiden name of Mrs Cary William Bok was Anges Margaret Storm, 1920-2018).

‘We want you to feel that this is your spiritual home and to know that our hearts will be with you always. Our pride in your success will assuage our loss.’

Final Faculty Recital

'His final faculty recital (1987) drew the largest audience ever seen in the room then called Curtis Hall (formerly Casimir Hall after Hofmann’s father, and now named Field Concert Hall in honor of a donor in the early 2000s). Jorge agreed to audience seating on the tiny stage because of the overflow crowd. Truly an unforgettable event because his playing was still remarkable because of his consummate technique, gorgeous sound, and sensitive musicianship.

He was a Baldwin artist who had 2 Baldwin grands installed in a studio (courtesy of Baldwin) in an all-Steinway school. Many feathers were ruffled. He played that last recital on a Baldwin concert grand which is very slightly larger than a Steinway model D and it did not fit on the stage elevator. He paid for the installation and tuning himself ,and we blocked the hall for 2 days (my memory is a bit hazy on that that), so that Jorge could practise and work with the Baldwin technician on tuning and voicing the instrument.' (Robert Fitzpatrick, Dean at Curtis, 1986-2009)

La Roque d’Anthéron

During the summer of 1986, Jorge made his first appearance on Friday 15 August at the 6th Festival International de Piano, La Roque d’Anthéron, France, with a Liszt recital at 9.30pm in Parc du Château de Florans. This took place at Aix-en-Provence with a piano which had to come from Berlin. Bolet was not at all happy with the instrument and a tuner had to be found immediately (this was Belgian piano technician Denijs de Winter, 'considered, in the general opinion, as one of the three best in the world' [Le Figaro Magazine] ). Consultation was all a little abstract, as de Winter did not speak much English. He nevertheless worked for a whole day, right up to the last minute, and Jorge got up onto the stage without having tried out the piano. Highly impressed, he then asked de Winter to do all his concerts.

Bolet also reportedly said: 'Now you see, now I have been discovered in France and I cannot make all the dates they want.' There were masterclasses on 14 and 16 August, with a young Hélène Grimaud on Liszt’s Dante Sonata and Véronique Pélissero on Chopin’s Sonata No. 3 Op.35.

Helene Grimaud herself recalls:

‘I had seen pictures of him when he was just starting out. His Rudolph Valentino physique heralded an intensely seductive relationship with the world, with a touch of chic like the fruit atop the frosty triangles of glasses holding exotic cocktails: blue lagoons and green ti' punches...

‘I wanted to come face to face with a master: I recognised him as such.

‘What places to play! Silvacane abbey and the Lake of the Alders. Close your eyes and say these names, say them slowly, in a murmur. Fairies and water-sprites come to mind, don't they? Merlin and Melusina, under the magic wand of Orpheus.'

Australia & Far East in February/March, 1987

The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Victoria)  23 January, 1987 reports:

Jorge Bolet, pianist, will give seven performances in Australia when he visits for a series of concerts with the Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras and solo recitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide during February and March. He comes to Melbourne direct from a triumphant European tour, during which the critical acclaim has been overwhelming and concert halls completely sold out.

For the programme of his solo recitals, Jorge Bolet has chosen as the major items Schumann’s superb Fantasy in C Major and Liszt’s hair-raising Venice and Naples, the composition with which he won the 1984 Gramophone Magazine award for Best Instrumental Record of the Year. (This is, I think, an error for the 1985 Award to Liszt's Suisse.)

He also appeared with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth Concert Hall on 28 March. The conductor was Patrick Thomas who began with Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, and then JB played César Franck's Symphonic Variations and then, after the interval, Rachmaninov 2.

During his time in Melbourne, Jorge was filmed in a Chopin & Liszt recital here. Rippon Lea House and Gardens, Elsternwick, Victoria

The house was built in 1869 by Frederick Sargood and named after his mother's maiden name, Rippon. Lea is an English word for a meadow.

The Australian National Trust inherited the property in 1972.

Splendid photos here.

The recorded recital here is in good picture quality.

Hong Kong

It seems that during this Australian tour he flew up to HK. On Monday, 9 March 1987 there was a recital in the City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong. Haydn's Andante con variazioni Hob XVII/6 and Sonata in E flat, Hob XVI/52; Schumann's Fantasy in C major Op. 17; Grieg, Ballade in G minor Op. 24 and ending with Liszt's Venezia e Napoli.

On 18 and 19 March he performed Schubert/Liszt's Wanderer Fantasy with the HK Philharmonic under Kenneth Jean. Of interest are some comments from a memorandum regarding the arrangement of the 9 March concert. Harrison Parrott Ltd. had informed the Department that JB would be touring the Far East in March 1987. His concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic had been arranged but he 'will be interested to give a recital under the auspices of the Urban Council while he is in the region'. The programme which he proposed 'is considered attractive though a bit substantial'.

'The agent has requested a fee of US $6000 inclusive of airfare share, hotel accommodation in one double and one single for two nights for Mr Bolet and his representative Mr Finley (the artist is now 71 years old and has to be looked after by his representative).'

There were also concerts in New Zealand in April.