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Jorge Bolet

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jorge Bolet (1914 to 1990) was a Cuban-American concert pianist, conductor and teacher. He was born in Havana and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he also taught from 1939 to 1942. His teachers included Leopold Godowsky, Josef Hofmann and Moriz Rosenthal, a famous pupil of Franz Liszt. In 1937 he won the Naumburg competition and gave his first recital. During his service in the American army he ended up in Japan, where he conducted the Japanese première of The Mikado.

Music and breakthrough

In 1960 he played the piano sounds for the film Song Without End, a biopic about Liszt with Dirk Bogarde, which won an Oscar for best music. Even so, for decades he remained criticised by American critics, who said he aimed too much at Romantic virtuosity, and his recordings from the 1960s were released on small labels. Only in 1974 did he break through nationally, with a grand recital at Carnegie Hall. From 1968 to 1977 he taught at Indiana University and afterwards briefly headed the piano department of the Curtis Institute, succeeding Rudolf Serkin. In 1978 he signed with Decca, at the age of sixty-four, and there followed recordings of a large part of his repertoire.

Influence

Bolet is remembered above all for his performances of great Romantic music, especially Liszt, César Franck and Chopin. In 1984 the channel A&E had him give masterclasses in Bolet Meets Rachmaninoff on Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, followed by a complete performance. He died in 1990 of heart failure.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his recording of Liszt's Années de pèlerinage from the 1980s and notice the singing melody that keeps sounding above the fast, heavy chords of the left hand.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists