Jorge Bolet
The life story of the great Cuban pianist is utterly unique. This committed artist, a specialist in the music of Franz Liszt, started his career as a concert performer and teacher very early, when he finished his studies in Philadelphia and Europe (Vienna and Paris) where he was a student of Josef Hofmann, Leopold Godowski and Moriz Rosenthal. Between 1939 and 1942 he was assistant to the great Rudolf Serkin at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute. During the war he also took up a diplomatic career as an attaché to the Cuban ambassador to the USA. After obtaining US citizenship he taught at prestigious universities: Indiana, Bloomington and then Serkin in 1977. It was around this time that Europe discovered him thanks to his many recordings of Franz Liszt for DECCA. A strange fate for someone who had been recording for 25 years but was above all dedicated to his academic work.
Inseparable from Baldwin or Bechstein pianos, which he demanded for every concert or recording, Jorge Bolet started a new career when he was well into his sixties. With a moustache that harked back to other times, his impeccable elegance, and his exquisite, rather old-school manners, he burst suddenly upon a world where the great pianists of legend like Wilhelm Kempff, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Claudio Arrau or Emil Gilels were gradually disappearing.
Thanks to his contract with DECCA, Jorge Bolet was able to record many works by Liszt, his favourite composer. He had caught the Liszt bug in his youth, at a concert with one of his teachers, Emil von Sauer, himself a student of the Hungarian composer. It is to him that we owe the remarkable Years of Pilgrimage which showcase his temperament - at once virtuoso and poetic - and a great fluidity of sound. In his recording of the Transcendental Etudes, it is not the speed which is of interest, a peculiarity which he never fell for, but rather an exceptional panache, allied to an extremely varied touch, and great subtlety. He adored Liszt's numerous transcriptions and paraphrases of opera which he played greedily and with a puckish delight.
His recital of 25 February 1974 at Carnegie Hall, available on QOBUZ, remains legendary. It was on that night that Jorge Bolet resurfaced, presaging a second career which would last 16 years. From Bach-Busoni to the Tannhäuser overture reworked by Liszt, by way of Chopin's complete Préludes and several encores, the mood was electric.
But his catalogue doesn't stop with Liszt. We owe this great pianist one of the finest recordings of Concert en ré by Ernest Chausson, with Itzhak Perlman and the Juilliard Quartet. With Charles Dutoit in Montréal he recorded concertos by Rachmaninov and Tchaïkovsky; with Riccardo Chailly in Berlin, he recorded Grieg and Schumann, at a comfortable tempo with a splendid sound. We also owe him recordings of the works of Schubert, Chopin, Grieg, Schumann, Debussy. The re-releases which are now available allow us to play Jorge Bolet against himself, comparing the records of his youth with those of his later years. Thrilling!
© François Hudry/QOBUZ/November 2017
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Jorge Bolet Live
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonatas Nos. 14 & 20
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Oct 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt & Rachmaninoff - Jorge Bolet
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16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Works Vol. 3 - Sonata In B Minor
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Mar 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 1 Jan 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: 16 Préludes
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Nov 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Carnaval, Fantasie
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jorge Bolet plays Liszt
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 23 Oct 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
His Earliest Recordings (Recorded 1952-1953)
Jorge Bolet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Thor Martin Johnson
Classical - Released by APR on 27 Sep 2011
5 de Diapason16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Handel Variations; Reger: Telemann Variations
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Nov 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le bal des adieux. La vie de Franz Liszt (Mono Version)
Jorge Bolet, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Morris Stoloff
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Liszt & Others: Piano Works (Live)
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 1 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jorge Bolet Plays Liszt Concerti, Sonata In B Minor, Mephisto Waltz
Classical - Released by Musical Concepts on 1 Jan 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Prelude, Choral & Fugue; Prelude, Aria & Finale
Jorge Bolet, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 13 Apr 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jorge Bolet: A Chopin Piano Recital (Transferred from the Original Everest Records Master Tapes)
Classical - Released by Everest on 2 Aug 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
More Of Franz Liszt's Greatest Hits
Robert Irving, Jorge Bolet, The Symphony of the Air
Classical - Released by Everest Records on 18 Jun 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Recital 1988 (Piano Works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven & Liszt)
Classical - Released by SWR Classic on 1 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Sonata in B Minor - Funerailles - Mephisto Waltz (Transferred from the Original Everest Records Master Tapes)
Classical - Released by Everest on 29 Jul 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Concert Studies (Piano Works Vol. 9)
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 29 Oct 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Song Without End - The Franz Liszt Story
Jorge Bolet, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Morris Stoloff
Film Soundtracks - Released by Hollywood on 1 Jan 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jorge Bolet Plays Chopin
Classical - Released by Prominence Records on 3 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo