Jorge Bolet
Hollywood & the 1960s
The Silver Screen
Whenever the name of Jorge Bolet was mentioned, someone might have remembered that he was the ‘piano ghost’ for Dirk Bogarde in the biopic about the life of Franz Liszt,
Song Without End. It was a tremendously big ‘break’ for him, but it did not lead at the time
to greater things.
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“I think it did more harm than whatever good
I got out of it. Naturally it brought my name to many people who are not regular concert goers, but there is also a prevalent belief amongst the musical world that if you do anything in Hollywood, you've ‘gone Hollywood’.”
A mixed blessing
Song without end, subtitled The story of Franz Liszt (1960) was a biographical film romance made by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Charles Vidor, who died during the shooting of the picture and was replaced by George Cukor. ​Its USA premiere was on 11 August 1960 in New York City.
Van Cliburn (born in Louisiana, 1934 and educated at Julliard) had been the first choice for the studio, Columbia Pictures: he was the pianist of the hour. The first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 had been an event designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during the Cold War, on the heels of that country's technological victory with the Sputnik launch in October 1957. Cliburn's performance in the finale on 13 April earned him a standing ovation lasting eight minutes.
When it was time to announce a winner, the judges were obliged to ask permission of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to give first prize to an American. 'Is he the best? Khrushchev asked. 'Then give him the prize!' Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, the only time the honour has been accorded a classical musician.
Cliburn was first choice for the film. But Abram Chasins (1903-87; composer, pianist - who had studied with Josef Hofmann at Curtis, 1931 - , music broadcaster and radio executive) recommended Bolet. His response about Cliburn was, “Well, I think he might be a good choice if you’re prepared to wait three years until he learns the repertoire.”
“Doing the soundtrack was a real plum, and I owe a great deal to Abram Chasins for my doing it.”
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A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
Britain
Albert McGrigor wrote in 1991 that ‘although Peter Wadland [Bolet's DECCA/ London producer] states that the pianist gave his first solo recital in England since the 1950s at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1976, Bolet had, in fact, played in England throughout the 1960s, both in recital and with orchestra.’
(He had also appeared, for example, in the Royal Festival Hall London in November 1974.)
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On Tuesday, 29 May 1962, Jorge Bolet performed a big programme of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23
Op. 57, Appassionata, Liszt’s B minor sonata and Chopin’s Third Sonata in London, his début as soloist in the Royal Festival Hall.
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'[Bolet's] London recital debut at Royal Festival Hall in 1962 was an unqualified triumph, though it unaccountably did not lead to his return until another decade had passed. His letter to his manager at Columbia Artists was a mixture of triumph and desperation: “I hope these [reviews] please you! I know they will. I really can’t do any better. Everyone here is extremely happy and I believe things will really start happening for me in Europe. Maybe the U.S. will discover me over here one of these days!"' (Francis Crociata) ​
Cuban Missile Crisis 1961
In 1961, Bolet recorded a Chopin recital for the Everest label. This was a drastic year in Cuban-American relations. The United States wanted Fidel Castro out of power. In one attempt to overthrow Castro, the U.S. sponsored the failed incursion of Cuban-exiles into Cuba in April 1961 (the Bay of Pigs Invasion). In 1962, Cuba was the centre of world focus when the U.S. discovered the construction sites of Soviet nuclear missiles. The struggle that ensued between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the Cuban Missile Crisis, brought the world the closest it ever came to nuclear war.
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Jorge told The State Times (Baton Rouge) 4 March 1961 that he would not comment on the Cuban situation, but added that 80% of his family were in Cuba. They include his father, mother, two brothers and numerous nieces and nephews.
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​​A feature article in La Nación (San José, Costa Rica), 27 December 1961 states that Jorge's automobile, during six seasons, has covered more than 200,000 miles, the equivalent of a journey to the moon. His home is in Los Altos, California but he maintains a small apartment in New York City. His dog is called Baldwin.
Poland 1961
From 26 May to 19 June, 1961 Jorge made his first trip behind the Iron Curtain, to Poland where he gave 10 concerts in six major cities starting in Kraków on the 26th. There were eight concerto dates with orchestra and two solo recitals. During the trip, he played on one of Chopin's pianos.
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'The tour was booked through Pagart, Poland’s counterpart to Russia’s Goskontsert, and included Cracow, Warsaw, Stettin, (Szczecin), Gdansk (formerly Danzig), Katowice, Bielsko, Jelenia, Gora,
and a few other cities en route.'
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Dziennik Polski (26 May 1961) advertised a concert that evening in Kraków with Jorge playing two concertos, Mozart K491 [= No.24] and Beethoven No. 3 (both in C minor) with Andrzej Markowski and the Orkiestra Filharmonii Krakowskiej. On 9-10 June, 1961, there was a concert with conductor Gerd Puls (GDR, East Germany) and the Symphony Orchestra of the Baltic State Opera and Philharmonic
in Gdańsk.
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Jorge told The Advocate, (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) 7.2.1961: 'Since I am being paid handsomely for my work there and I'm not allowed to take out one red cent of currency, I am going to have the pleasure of trying to spend the equivalent of $10,000 in three weeks on art works and sables.'
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Bolet on a later, second trip (October, 1984) disliked travelling in Poland during the communist regime very much, and after two performances of Liszt's Piano Concertos with the Warsaw Philharmonic, he (and partner Tex Compton) insisted on leaving the country on the last flight out on the night of the concert. He was unnerved by the constant and very unsubtle surveillance.​ Both men were convinced that such strong surveillance was the result of the fact that the Polish government knew Jorge had been a military man in the past and might be a spy!
Behind the Iron Curtain
1961 was a tense and dramatic time in the Warsaw Pact countries (Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Albania). Reuters reported for The New York Times that on Sunday, 13 August, East Germany closed the border early today between East and West Berlin:
‘The quietness of East Berlin's deserted streets was shattered in the early hours of the morning by the screaming of police sirens as police cars, motorcycles and truckloads of police sped through the city.’
The measures were directed at stopping the flow of refugees from East to West through West Berlin. The flow of refugees has recently been reaching 1,700 daily.
Liszt in the Netherlands, 1962
On Tuesday, 20 March 1962, there was an Amsterdam recital in the Grote Zaal of the Concertgebouw. It was billed as a Liszt recital to celebrate 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, though he was born 22 October 1811.
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Algemeen Handelsblad had a headline of "Aseptische Virtuositeit" (Sterile Virtuosity).
The Grote Zaal was three-quarters empty. 'His playing sounded as fabulously well-groomed as one rarely hears on our stage. His playing is crystal clear, both the jeu perlé ('pearly playing - where the semiquavers are light and sparkling'), and the furious speed of the martellato ('strongly accented, or hammered out') passages. The ten fingers of this devilish artist appear to exert a different degree of force on the keys at the same time... This perfectionism is geared to playing with sounds: the less expression is hidden behind the notes, the more satisfying the results.'
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In Liszt's Sonata in B minor, 'the psychic connection between the violent and the sweet (lieflijke) episodes is missing; the grip on the whole is lost. Remarkably, the same thing happens with a very short piece like Funerailles, which is performed without the required obsessive tension and only causes false alarm.'​​
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A music critic Cas Wichers was to say in 1987 that 'the Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet has been
a familiar face on the Dutch music stages for over thirty years'.
Moments of fairy tale poetry
On Wednesday-Friday 29-31 January 1964, Jorge played Prokofiev 2 with the San Francisco Symphony under Josef Krips at the Opera House (concerts which also included Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D minor and Stravinsky's Firebird). To hear Jorge Bolet play the Prokofiev 'is one
of the most sensational experiences of modern virtuoso pianism'.
The reviewer once asked JB why more pianists didn't play the second, and preferred the third. '"They can't play it, that's why," he answered, perhaps jokingly. It's too difficult for them."' Bolet is described as a mountain of a man, resembling San Francisco hotelier and Austrian consul Karl Weber.
He performed the concerto with 'machine-gun speed, artillery thunder and a sharpshooter accuracy. His most powerful tone can be a bit noisy'. The concerto itself is described as having moments of fairy tale poetry. 'No one seemed to enjoy the Prokofieff experience more than Krips.'
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The performance as a whole displayed 'artistic joy in the flamboyant gusto of typically pianistic means, just as craftsmanly elaborations and ormolu adornments innately belong to the beauty of fine rococo furniture'.
(Alexander Fried, San Francisco Examiner 31.1.64)
Southern Hemisphere
In 12 September - 8 October, Bolet toured New Zealand, with recitals in 8 centres and 5 concerto appearances.
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In late October and November of the same year (1964), Bolet made a tour of South Africa (in their summer), one which included a solo recital in Cape Town. This was also his first appearance with the Cape Town/Kaapstad Municipal Orchestra, on Thursday 22 October, 1964, in a performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and his Hungarian Fantasia. Weber’s Der Freischütz Overture and Manuel De Falla’s ballet music The Three-Cornered Hat constituted the rest of the programme.
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In an interview with the Rand Daily News (Johannesburg), 12 October 1964, Dora Sowden states that Jorge has just come from New Zealand by air. After South Africa, he goes to Bergen, Norway (he will also go to Australia for 45 concerts next year). He leaves today (Monday) for a four day trip to the Kruger National Park​
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Of a Sunday evening recital at the Civic Theatre, Johannesburg, the Rand Daily News (2 November): 'If anyone regretted the announcement that Bolet had decided to play Liszt's Mephisto waltz rather than the Godowsky Fledermaus paraphrase, that regret must have been swept away by the pianist's superlative playing. It threw new light in Liszt. Here was a performer who did not struggle with Satan; he had him under foot and finger.' There were moments of colossal force and beauty in the Liszt Sonata.​
Percy Tucker, concert agent
Percy Tucker (1928, Benoni, Gauteng – 29 January 2021) was a South African ticket booking agent and author. He launched the first electronic theatre booking system in the world in 1971.
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In his memoir (1997) he says that 'I made another friend in the Cuban-born pianist Jorge Bolet, who came out for the Johannesburg Musical Society [October/November 1964].
'During Jorge's visit, his manager, Tex Compton, had a serious fall-out with Johannesburg Music Society chairman Hans Adler, well-known as a difficult and unpleasant man, and when Jorge, who made many friends here, wanted to come again, Hans refused to negotiate with Tex. Jorge wrote to Peta Fisher offering to come for Musica Viva, but Peta felt it unethical to engage a JMS artist. It took six years to resolve the situation, at which time Tex asked me to organise a tour for Jorge [1970/1?], which the pianist would back from his own pocket. This was another first for me, and one which resulted in two more successful tours for Jorge.
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'In Madrid, I decided to take up Jorge Bolet's invitation to visit him. He and Tex gave me a thorough tour
of Madrid, then we flew to their home at Fuenterrabia where Jorge's brother, the orchestral conductor Albert Bolet, was also visiting. What a great time we had - Liszt, Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Schumann
in the mornings, trips to delightful places new to me, such as San Sebastian, for lunch, afternoon siestas, and late-night dinners in a series of magnificent Spanish restaurants.'