Jorge Bolet - Complete Decca Recordings: CD Box Set

When Jorge Bolet died in October 1990 the world lost one of its last ‘great Romantics’. Spirituality, a luxuriant tonal palette, a real sense of architecture, breadth, grandeur, all allied to a prodigious technique – these were just some of the qualities that informed his playing. Now, for the first time, Decca collects all the recordings he made for the label, from 1977 to 1990. Released for the first time and included in this set, is his last recording, a selection of Chopin’s Nocturnes and the Berceuse, recorded just seven months before his death.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1914, Bolet was the fifth of six children. Showing an early aptitude for the piano, Bolet was able, through private funding as well as pure serendipity (something that informed several key moments in his professional life), to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with David Saperton, who also taught Shura Cherkassky, Abbey Simon and the young Julius Katchen. Saperton was the son-in-law of Leopold Godowsky and later, Bolet took lessons with him.

REPERTOIRE

1: CHOPIN/GODOWSKY Transcriptions
2: LISZT: Two Concert Studies, S.145; Three Concert Studies, S.144; Six Consolations, S.172; Réminiscences de Don Juan — Mozart, S.418
3: BRAHMS: Variations on a theme by Handel, Op. 24; REGER: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Telemann, Op. 134
4: LISZT: Schubert Lieder Transcriptions
5: LISZT: Hungarian Rhapsody No.12; Liebestraum No.3; Mephisto Waltz No.1; Funérailles (Harmonies Poétiques Et Religieuses No.7); Rigoletto (Verdi) – Concert Paraphrase; La Campanella 
6: LISZT: Sonata in B minor; Valse Impromptu; Liebesträume Nos. 1 & 2; Grand Galop Chromatique
7: LISZT: Années de pèlerinage: Italie 
8:RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 [London Symphony Orchestra/Ivan Fischer]
9: LISZT: Années de pèlerinage: Suisse
10: LISZT: Années de pèlerinage: Venezia e Napoli; Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este; Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude; Ballade No.2 
11: LISZT: Totentanz; Malédiction; Hungarian Fantasia [London Symphony Orchestra/Ivan Fischer]; SCHUBERT/LISZT: Wanderer Fantasie [London Philharmonic Orchestra/Georg Solti]
12: LISZT: Transcendental Studies S139
13: Piano Encores – Mendelssohn, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert/Godowsky, Albéniz/Godowsky, Godowsky, R. Strauss/Godowsky, Bizet/Godowsky, Moszkowski, Schlözer
14: GRIEG: Piano Concerto; SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto [RSO Berlin/Riccardo Chailly]
15: SCHUMANN: Carnaval, Op. 9; Fantasie in C, Op. 17
16: RACHMANINOFF: Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22; Preludes, Opp. 3/2, 32/7, 32/12, 23/5, 23/10; Mélodie, Op. 3 No. 3; KREISLER/RACHMANINOFF: Liebesleid, Liebesfreud
17: FRANCK: Symphony in D minor; Variations symphoniques [Concertgebouworkest/Riccardo Chailly]
18: CHOPIN: Ballades Nos. 1-4; Barcarolle, Op. 60; Fantasie, Op. 49
19: RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2; TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 1 [Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Charles Dutoit]
20: CHOPIN: 24 Préludes, Op. 28; Nocturnes, Opp. 27/1, 55/1, 27/2, 62/2
21: FRANCK: Prélude, Choral et Fugue; Prélude, Aria et Final
22: DEBUSSY: Préludes from Books I & II
23: SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in A major, D.959; Piano Sonata in A minor, D.784
24: MENDELSSOHN: Prelude & Fugue, Op. 35/1; FRANCK: Prélude, Choral et Fugue; LISZT: Réminiscences de Norma S.394
25: CHOPIN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 [Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Charles Dutoit]
26: CHOPIN: Nocturnes – Opp. 9/1, 9/3, 15/1, 32/1, 32/2, 55/2, 72/1; Berceuse

Key among his projects for the label was a sequence of Liszt recordings, described by Gramophone as ‘an indispensable series’. Undeniable is his stamp on the original Liszt works, but have the transcriptions of the Schubert lieder ever taken wing like they do in these interpretations? He also recorded concertos by Grieg, Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff as well as solo works by the last three aforementioned.