# Jorge Bolet



## Guest

A magnificent pianist. Just listening to this right now:






What are your fave recordings from this pianist? We don't seem to hear that much about him these days, while other pianists of the past - Richter, for example - get plenty of exposure.


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## Allegro Con Brio

Bolet's Liszt is incredible - I'm not always that big on Liszt's piano music but Bolet manages to be virtuosic without being bombastic, which is normally what I can't stand in pianists who treat it as pure show music. I haven't heard him on any other composers, though.


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## Guest

Agreed about the Liszt. But I'm wondering why this splendid musician seems to have disappeared in our consciousness. There's real poetry and thoughtfulness in his playing. How about this:






This is a much better performance than the Ashkenazy recordings I have of Chopin, which is often anodyne.


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## Rogerx

> Agreed about the Liszt


+ 1, those paraphrases are splendid


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## Mandryka

Prokofiev concerto with Thor Johnson
Chopin 3rd sonata on Marston, the live one. (Not the one in the image, that was a mistake, I haven’t heard it. Vol 1 of that séries from Marston Records.) 
Schubert/Liszt transcriptions
Brahms and Reger variations 
Carnegie Hall recital with the Chopin preludes.


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## Guest

Excellent!! You're obviously an enthusiast. I listened most of the day yesterday to the Chopin works in the link I provided above, running it through my TV via Chromecast for the sound system that goes with the TV. Some interesting comparisons of the Etudes, just as one example, which I have from Pollini and a couple of other lesser pianists. But very satisfying visiting these works again - which I don't often listen to these days. There was a good deal of poetry in Jorge Bolet's playing.


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## chill782002

Love his Debussy preludes. A shame that he only recorded 16 of them rather than the full set though.


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## millionrainbows

chill782002 said:


> Love his Debussy preludes. A shame that he only recorded 16 of them rather than the full set though.


Did he do Book I or Book II?


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## Guest

millionrainbows said:


> Did he do Book I or Book II?


Book 1. He appears to have recorded little Debussy.


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## Caryatid

I listened to some of his recordings and I am impressed. It seems I neglected this pianist.


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## Guest

Caryatid said:


> I listened to some of his recordings and I am impressed. It seems I neglected this pianist.


It seems many people have. Try this:






Bolet had hands the size of Rachmaninov. He was an elegant man and sensitive musician, who died 2 years after this Concerto was recorded.


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## Guest

I'm wondering if this interview provides some insights into the relative neglect of Jorge Bolet:


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## Mandryka

Christabel said:


> I'm wondering if this interview provides some insights into the relative neglect of Jorge Bolet:


Very interesting, thank you.

Maybe one reason I think he's falling into neglect is that he was overplayed on American radio when he was alive -- I remember an American once saying to me that he was just always being played, and everyone got well and truly sick and tired of his style.

But more generally, Bolet is a very "beautiful sound" type pianist, he's in the same mould as Josef Hofmann. And there are too many times where that sonic beauty is purchased at the expense of tension.

He had good technique, hence in music with very little deapth and lots of technical challenges, he's good -- I'm thinking of things by composers like Reger, Kreisler, Anton Rubinstein, Tausig, Liszt.

In deeper music, Chopin for example, he can come up with something worthwhile, but there are often lots of reservations. I'm listening right now to his live Chopin sonata 3, in the first movement, and it's beautiful. But the complete absence of tension, relief, c ontrast is a major limitation. I don't want to mince words -- it's boring.

Here's something where he may well be totally unsurpassed. It's just the music's not very good!


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## Sad Al

A most interesting post. I have Bolet Rediscovered somewhere in this another fine mess, I think it's Liszt. What then _exactly_ is music with huge depth? Is it Bach?

- once again a bad post of mine. This is horrible. My brain is going away going away going away...


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## Guest

@Mandryka: very interesting comments. Not being American, I had no idea of Bolet's being overplayed on radio during his lifetime. "The beautiful sound"? I didn't really detect this in the Chopin Etudes in the link I provided at the top of this thread; sometimes I found them choppy and uneven but not 'beautiful' per se. A world away from the hard-edged Pollini, which I have on CD. But I hear what you're saying. What did you think of the Rach #3 which I posted? I found a lot of inflection there; subito piano, well-shaped harmonic line bringing out 'counter melody' and so forth. I would say Ashkenazy had that 'beautiful sound' and this doesn't appeal to me so much for the reasons you outline with Bolet!! But it means we are always LISTENING, which is the main game!!


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## chill782002

millionrainbows said:


> Did he do Book I or Book II?


Selected works from both Books.


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## millionrainbows

Richter was like that too; instead of doing entire works, he would cherry-pick what ones he included. I guess he had the audience in mind when he did this.
Speaking of "hands as big as Rachmaninoff's", isn't that an intriguing idea?


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## flamencosketches

millionrainbows said:


> Richter was like that too; instead of doing entire works, he would cherry-pick what ones he included. I guess he had the audience in mind when he did this.
> Speaking of "hands as big as Rachmaninoff's", isn't that an intriguing idea?


Re: Richter, there's a funny story of Dmitri Shostakovich telling Richter he wished that he would record his complete op.87 24 Preludes and Fugues, to which Richter replied "What, even the ones I don't like?" or something to that effect. :lol: Amazingly, the Richter in Spoleto CD that I know we both like contains the complete Debussy Preludes Book 2, in the correct order I think.

Curious to hear Bolet play Debussy. I really like his Liszt.


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## Guest

millionrainbows said:


> Richter was like that too; instead of doing entire works, he would cherry-pick what ones he included. I guess he had the audience in mind when he did this.
> Speaking of "hands as big as Rachmaninoff's", isn't that an intriguing idea?


I feel they were mostly from Book 1 of Debussy Preludes, though.


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## flamencosketches

Christabel said:


> I feel they were mostly from Book 1 of Debussy Preludes, though.


9 from book 1, 7 from book 2, from the tracklist.


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## Guest

flamencosketches said:


> 9 from book 1, 7 from book 2, from the tracklist.


I would really like to hear those and will search U-Tube. Thanks for the heads up and for setting me straight.

I found this from 1984!! Track lists below the link. The quality is unfortunately pretty bad:


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## Josquin13

Mandryka writes, "Maybe one reason I think he's falling into neglect is that he was overplayed on American radio when he was alive -- I remember an American once saying to me that he was just always being played, and everyone got well and truly sick and tired of his style."

I'm an American and I don't remember Bolet getting overplayed on the radio. But then I lived in Philadelphia & New York City during the 1980s. Maybe it was a West coast thing?

What I do remember is that Bolet had a reputation for being a better pianist in the concert hall than he was in the recording studio.

& I can attest to this. In 1989, I heard Bolet play his final concert at Carnegie Hall, and remember that he opened the program with a deeply moving performance of Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude. It surprised me, as I hadn't expected to be so moved by Liszt.

The next day I went to Tower Records and bought the Decca CD of Bolet's Bénédiction. When I got home and put the CD on my player, I found that the studio performance was more tame and subdued and less imaginative and creative that what I'd heard in concert. It didn't have the same magic. In concert, Bolet's playing was somehow more alive. So, I now understood what people had been talking about, when they said that Bolet was at his best in the concert hall.

Which is not to say that I don't treasure some of Bolet's studio recordings. I do. Most of all, his "Harmonies du Soir" from Liszt's Transcendental Etudes. It's one of my all-time favorite performances of this piece, and my favorite recording of the 12 Transcendental Etudes, overall. I even prefer Bolet to Claudio Arrau here (although I prefer Arrau in the Sonata in B minor):





https://www.amazon.com/Liszt-Piano-...al+etudes&qid=1588358201&s=music&sr=1-1-fkmr0

(There are also two earlier Bolet recordings of the Liszt Etudes--on RCA Victor and Ensayo, which I've not heard: 



.)

Another favorite Bolet disc of mine is his Decca recording of Liszt's Liebesträume (3 Nocturnes), 6 Consolations & 3 Concert Studies: 




https://www.amazon.com/Liszt-Concert-Studies-Consolations-Reminiscences/dp/B00000E39R

Bolet's recording of Liszt's Années de Pèlegrinage, Book 1, the 'Swiss years', is exceptional, too: 




When I lived in Philadelphia, I knew several Curtis Institute students and can remember one of them grumbling about Bolet one day after she'd heard him play a faculty recital. She complained that his piano touch was too heavy. That was the first time I'd heard of Bolet. Later, when I'd heard his playing for myself, I found that I didn't agree with her (and I don't care pianists that pound on the keys). Rather, I thought that Bolet had real strength at the piano, and there is a difference.

Here's a Bolet story from those times: one summer during a sweltering heat wave in the city of Philadelphia--when the temperature had reached the high 90s for several days in a row, I remember hearing that Bolet had arrived at the Curtis Institute to tell his students that due to the extreme hot conditions they needn't practice the full amount that day. Instead, he advised them to only practice for "8 hours" and call it a day. Apparently, that was a light day for Bolet!

To my surprise, in checking You Tube, I find that the concert I attended in 1989 was taped--although it's a pirated tape and the sound is frustratingly lacking. So, don't expect the same intense listening experience that I had at Carnegie Hall in 1989: unless you can transcend the poor audio with your imagination. Nevertheless, after re-listening to the concert, I do still think that it's a magical Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude. I'd also recommend listening to the rest of the concert, too--a fine Schubert Sonata D. 959 & several Liszt transcriptions & encores. Sadly, Bolet would die a year and 7 months later on October 16, 1990. I can remember being very surprised and saddened when I heard the news of his death. Bolet had projected such strength at the piano that night. I would never have guessed that he was so ill at the time:






Here too is a link to Bolet's Decca studio recording of the Bénédiction, for comparison:


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## Roger Knox

In the 1970's some pianists thought Claudio Arrau had a "heavy" touch, but that never bothered me when I heard him play Beethoven's 3rd and (magnificently) Brahms's 2nd. I agree with you about Bolet whom I heard in recital. He didn't bang or sound frenzied, but there was largeness and grandeur to his playing. The program ended with a Liszt transcription the audience loved, yet I remember most his Reger Telemann Variations, and now appreciate his performing neglected long, difficult late Romantic works.


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## Guest

@Josquin13: I absolutely loved your comments and insights. Thanks very much. And I'm listening to your links right now.

That pirated Schubert D959 is a stunning performance!!! It has strength, while many musicians have a somewhat effete approach to this work (if I can put it like that).


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## millionrainbows

flamencosketches said:


> Re: Richter, there's a funny story of Dmitri Shostakovich telling Richter he wished that he would record his complete op.87 24 Preludes and Fugues, to which Richter replied "What, even the ones I don't like?" or something to that effect. :lol: Amazingly, the Richter in Spoleto CD that I know we both like contains the complete Debussy Preludes Book 2, in the correct order I think.
> 
> Curious to hear Bolet play Debussy. I really like his Liszt.


Yeah, that Spoleto recording is killer! I was listening to it on vinyl back in 1971, and still smoking dope in the little house on 5th Street I used to live in.


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## millionrainbows

"What, even the ones I don't like?" ROFL, LMAO LMAO!!


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## millionrainbows

Josquin13 said:


> When I lived in Philadelphia, I knew several Curtis Institute students and can remember one of them grumbling about Bolet one day after she'd heard him play a faculty recital. She complained that his piano touch was too heavy. That was the first time I'd heard of Bolet. Later, when I'd heard his playing for myself, I found that I didn't agree with her (and I don't care pianists that pound on the keys). Rather, I thought that Bolet had real strength at the piano, and there is a difference.
> 
> Here's a Bolet story from those times: one summer during a sweltering heat wave in the city of Philadelphia--when the temperature had reached the high 90s for several days in a row, I remember hearing that Bolet had arrived at the Curtis Institute to tell his students that due to the extreme hot conditions they needn't practice the full amount that day. Instead, he advised them to only practice for "8 hours" and call it a day. Apparently, that was a light day for Bolet!


Thanks for the piano story! There used to be a guy ('Mozart') on the Amazon forum who told some good piano stories. He was totally, almost exclusively into piano recordings, and had a big set of Magnaplanar speakers, because they reproduced piano so realistically. There was one about Richter sleeping under a grand piano...


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## perdido34

The problem with Bolet since the 1980s is that many of his Decca recordings show him at his worst, including a number that were made when he was quite ill. Since I've begun listening to his RCA discs and a number of his live performances issued on Audite and elsewhere, my open of Bolet has changed completely.


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