Wow! Astounding! So proud to share his Cuban heritage (and to have studied with two Cuban concert artist/pedagogues (that were pupils of the Lhevinnes)). His recording of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne immediately motivated me to learn and program that magnificent transcription!
As if one heard Liszt himself bringing to ears that had never yet heard such orchestral sounds, expressing through his fingers the grandeur of Wagner's newest music which breaks like a tsunami on a continental shelf upon the ecstatic first listeners, and upon those who had heard it before, as a revelation of a profundity they found they had not experienced.
Listen closely--the is performance takes place at the end of a gargantuan recital--one that changed Mr. Bolet's career at the end of his life. Even now, at the end of an exhausting evening, he is singing. This is not forced playing. To watch him playing was physically anti-climactical--like watching Toscanini conduct. However, the conception was staggering. Sadly, if you were taking lessons from him, he would mostly just sweep you off the bench, saying "No! Like this!" and then play like what you hear in this recording. Most of my lessons with him were simply a grateful realization that I had been in the presence of one of the greatest players in history. This piano is a Baldwin SD-10, the model which showed Baldwin had carried the SUSTAIN quality of a concert grand to a new level. I knew a technician in the 1990's who knew the history of this particular piano, and even knew where it currently was. That piano should be in a museum as an artifact of one of the greatest recitals in history. Bravissimo, Mr. Bolet. I think you understood what you had, and am thankful you had a sunset in your career that perhaps began to do you justice!
I can only imagine what it was like in your shoes. By the time I had come to truly admire his playing, he had passed away. I would have loved to hear him play live, but am happy to hear him on recordings.
Listen to all his recordings, commercial and pirated. I truly believe this 1974 recital is Bolet on the Hofmann level. Maybe the comment below that he was--at that moment--the greatest pianist on earth is true. I have heard him on this level at other times, but rarely. Also, I must admit that watching him was a piano lesson in its own right.
Liszt gave master classes in much the same way (No! Like THIS!...and then Liszt at the piano awakens the musical conception for everyone instantly). I imagine the character and command of Bolet's performance here brings us closer to hearing Liszt as he might have played.
Bolet never gave you the impression he was putting music through the "Bolet filter" as did Horowitz. My copy of the Chopin D-flat Nocturne as taught by Bolet has many of his own markings and ornaments--I thought they were his--but I went on to discover the markings were learned by Mr. Bolet from the old Mikuli Edition, who was a student of Chopin. As Hofmann reported about Rubinstein, Bolet demanded the score when you played, and he made markings with his red pencil as he listened. I should notate which of my scores have Bolet markings in them, so they don't end up in a second-hand store someday.@@mstalcup
Seriously. It astounds me that he capped off a 90 minute recital with this impeccable performance. The greatest performance of this piece that I have heard, and one of the greatest moments in music. Bravo!
Bolet was a true genius -- not flashy -- given only to the music and the composers -- here is Wagner seen through the astonishing transcription of Liszt under the calm, total mastery of Bolet -- three geniuses at once!
Technically and musically stupendous. Justly legendary. One of the very, very few examples of performance as close as possible to the imaginary one described with the dreaded word "definitive".
I saw this when he was getting the recital ready as he was on the Indiana School of Music faculty at the time. It was one of the most amazing recitals I've ever attended.
A truly outstanding performance is no longer the performer playing, but the work itself revealing itself through the performer. In such a performance, the performer's mission is to deliver the work to the divine spirit that created it. I myself can do nothing; it is the Spirit that gave birth to the work that does the work. In this performance of Tannhäuser, Jorge Bolet is doing just that. The result is a piano version of Tannhäuser that stands out from all others.
El recital de Málaga de diciembre de 1974 fue para mí una de las experiencias musicales más impresionantes de mi vida. Grandísimo Bolet, quizás solo comparable a Horowitz o Joseph Hoffman. Gracias.
Fantástico Bolet. Ótima leitura. Sensibilidade. Interpretação. Wagner. gênio. Ninguém faz isso se não for especial.Extremamente complexa está obra.Belíssima. Profunda. Para ele, de fácil entendimento.
That was fantastic. Much thanks to whoever recorded this, and also thanks for posting this video so that others can enjoy this most wondrous work and performance.
Never excess. Never showy. Judicious use of pedal. Accuracy in all octave passages. Never rushed. You can hear everything "inside." Pedal points are never "pounded." Notice his complete refusal to use rubato. He actually worked this out by counting out each measure. The incredible virtuosity is virtually hidden. All you hear is the music. He may have played this better than Liszt. Sanjosemike (no longer in CA)
Hear the vigor and color of Bolet's magisterial performance! Although Cziffra's version has a special place in my heart for his infallible technique, Bolet's ability of possessing bravura without inducing narcissism makes this recording an easy contender for the best rendition of this transcription
Cziffra's performance- technically is flawless, but lacks artistic purity. Bolet's performance is a measured one. Notice how he slows the tempo in the recapitulation of the Pilgrim's Chorus, but the sheer ethereal beauty and artistic expression is extremely heightened until the last chord. I don't think any pianist can really perform this titanic piece as well as Bolet. And to perform this piece as his final offering in a recital is just mind blowing!
Was this original Liszt's Paraphrase? Or rather Bollet's own version upon Tannhäuser Ouverture by Wagner? Not human...anyway...out of scale virtuosity.
How I hate applause, that barbaric post-script of the illiterate to a letter they could never write! Deep, moved silence would be so much more expressive than the raucuous coda of clapping din to the majestic accomplishment of sublime sound!
People applaud because a living, present human being just gave them this treasure, this joy, this performance....and they rightly show their appreciation and thanks in return.
I, on the other hand, can't contain my joy over the fact that it bothers you so much and yet there is absolutely nothing you will ever be able to do about it. How does it feel?
I know where you’re coming from, but looked at from an alternative perspective, applauding, and the desire to applaud is the most natural human reaction to something as refined and studied and practiced and ‘performed’ as this sort of pianistic (and just pure human) excellence. Without getting too quasi philosophical or Ying Yang about it, a barbaric reaction is natural AND beautiful in the context of maintaining an unforced equilibrium. To put it simply, you can’t have one without the other, and even if you could, it just wouldn’t be preferable. It comes full circle, refinement without barbarism, would itself be a curious type of ugliness, cerebral, cold, Ideal - with a hideously capitalised ‘I’, and we all know where that ends up. I adore reflection and silence and am critical sometimes of (forgive me) American audiences prematurely ‘hallooing from the reverberate hills’, but for that brief second when the audience screams and claps their hands over Sr Bolet’s last chord, there IS a communion of sorts and a contact where we are, for the briefest of moments, making music and sharing life together as nothing more and nothing less than equals. THAT’s the power and gift of music. Sr Bolet shows us that, but so do the occupants of Rows A, B, C, to Rows X, Y, Z, stalls, balconies and upper circles and everyone between... and even at home through RU-vid nearly 50 years after the fact, Sr Bolet, Liszt and Wagner reach out to us and more than that, invite our embrace. This is the very opposite of barbarism, no?
As as composer and performer, how I hate people that do not applaud at a performance, that sterile post-script of the vacuous elite to a feeling they could never experience! Deep, moved appreciation would be much more expressive than the utter silence to the majestic accomplishment of sublime sound! À chacun son goût
