Jorge Bolet Beethoven & Liszt St Paul Minnesota November 29 1972

Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) - piano

Schubert Club O’Shaughnessy Auditorium St Paul Minnesota
November 29th 1980

Note: Jorge Bolet began this recital with Haydn's Andante and Variations in F minor H.XVII:6 and Sonata in E flat major H.XVI:52 but these were not included in the radio broadcast. (There is some overload distortion and a short section during the Appassionata slow movement with drop-out on one channel in the original tape.) The concert was reviewed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune - please see below.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Op. 57 'Appassionata':
1. Allegro assai [0:01]
2. Andante con moto [9:19]
3. Allegro ma non troppo – Presto [15:54]

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

Funérailles (Harmonies poétiques et religieuses S. 173 No. 7) [23:57]

Two Concert Études (Zwei Konzertetüden) S. 145:
1. Waldesrauschen [36:25]
2. Gnomenreigen [40:31]

Rhapsodie espagnole (Spanish Rhapsody) S. 254 [43:41]

encores:

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849)

Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 No. 1 [57:28]

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)

Un Sospiro (Trois études de concert S. 144 No. 3) [1:03:32]

Concluding Minnesota Public Radio broadcast announcement [1:09:08]

piano: Baldwin SD-10

from the Minneapolis Star Tribune November 30 1972:

Last-minute substitutions don't always make for a snazzy evening, but Wednesday night the Schubert Club was lucky in the appearance, at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, on 24 hours notice, of the great Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet.

The scheduled pianist, the young Russian Alexander Slobodyanik, cancelled his American tour this week because of the death of his mother and flew back to the Soviet Union.

Bolet, who divides his time between concertizing and teaching at the University of Indiana, has long been a pianist of major stature, particularly as an interpreter of the works of Franz Liszt.

So it was no surprise that Bolet devoted the second half of his program to four of Liszt's most brilliant works, which the pianist rendered with all the gleaming virtuosity that characterizes his recordings of Liszt.

The joy of hearing Bolet assay Liszt comes in addition to the technical mastery, namely in his deft handling of the composer's often neglected musical problems. Neither Bolet's taste nor phrasing are sacrificed even in the midst of the most bravura passages.

"Funerailles" opened the Liszt half, a selection often described as the most eloquent funeral oration ever pronounced by a solo instrument. From the despairing introduction to the piece's thunderous climax, the execution by Bolet was masterful.

Two popular works followed, the graceful "Waldesrauschen" and the more difficult "Gnomenreigen". The wispy pianistic color of the latter was taken at a whirlwind pace, yet it was accurately and thoughtfully rendered.

The last of the Liszt pieces, the "Spanish Rhapsody", may be the composer at his most meretricious, filled as it is with seemingly endless and thunderous double octaves, but it made for a smashing closing, the audience exploding into applause.

The first half of the program gave ample evidence, however, that Liszt is not all that Bolet can do. In the less heroic Haydn works, the beautifully meditative "Andante con variazione" and the E flat major Sonata, he displayed a gracefully nimble touch and a refined sensibility.

One of Beethoven's noblest canvasses for solo piano, the Sonata in F minor ("Appassionata") rounded out the varied evening. In Bolet's hands the first movement was even more impassioned than usual right up to the sweeping finale.

The Adagio was a bit slow to my thinking, though it had a logic to its poetics, while in the third movement, the tempest returned, appropriately enough, and hurled the sonata to a relentless finish.

Not bad for a last-minute substitute.

-- Michael Anthony