Just discovered your videos today & have loved the ones I’ve watched so far. Intelligent guy! 👍 I grew up in SW Arkansas in the ‘50’s. Was a better pianist than Clem across the holler, so I decided it might be my ticket to a better life! Practiced Czerny till I was blue in the face! Won a few contests, & wound up at Oberlin!! Mission accomplished!! While I was there, one of my performances was submitted to The International Piano Library (without my knowledge). Next thing I know, I get an invitation from Jorge Bolet to come to IU! Problem solved! Thought I’d come to IU & tread water till I figured out how to support myself! Bolet was the most caring & wonderful human being ever. He knew I had no real interest in being a performer, but he let me stay around. I was studying with him when he had the contract to record the Rachmaninoff transcriptions. I was working on the Midsummer’s Night’s Dream Scherzo when he was. He said: “Once I get this little bastard recorded, I never intend to play it again!” It’s not his best recording. 🙄 I wound up playing in Margaret Harshaw’s studio for years & had a wonderful life dealing with wonderful singers & pianists! Love your videos! Davis Hart

The Bolet version is so much more satisfying than every other recording I've ever heard. Love the way he does the Op. 10 # 1 in particular.

Cole, what savvy, pithy commentary that so hits the mark! In 1983 I saw on TV the "Bolet meets Rachmaninoff" masterclass from the BBC. It forever changed me and I became a huge Bolet fan. I've read bio's on him and listened to most of his recordings and most, not all, are sublime. His shaping of a phrase with changing dynamics really communicates the beauty of the music to the listener. BTW, one of my favorite Bolet quotes was "Nothing kills beautiful piano music like excessive speed." Although there is a time and place for everything. I listen to your commentary and find myself agreeing on every point. :) Great job Cole on these videos. Best Regards.

I saw/heard him play the Brahms B-flat Concerto with Maazel and the Cleveland at Blossom back in the late 70's and it was one of the most magical performances of anything I've heard in my life......the waves of beautiful sound washing over me were incredible......

@FJCrociata

10 ай бұрын

The conductor wasn’t Maazel. He was Jerzy Semkow. You can find that concert here on KZread.

I absolutely love the op10 n6 for left hand alone. Ive recorded it. I also think the op25 n11 godowksy study is incredible. I think the best studys of godowksy capture the atmosphere and character of the original whilst transending the means at which the musical message is delivered into a completely different universe.

A fascinating introduction to today's upload (those lucky students to be in a class with you, Cole!); an exquisite performance from Jorge Bolet (it is the first recording of a performance by him that I have ever heard, and I shall be watching the whole of the link you kindly provide to the 1988 BBC recording); the Opus 25 No. 1 Study in A Flat Major I see is marked by Godowsky as requiring "a most sensitive and sympathetic touch, extreme delicacy, independent fingers, a perfect legato, a poetic soul" - so not too demanding (!!) . . . and luckily possessed by Bolet in abundance! Musicologist and critic Harold C. Schonberg declared these studies to be "the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano" and they are well renowned for their technical difficulty. Which one will you be playing for us at a later date, Cole, I wonder?!

@TheIndependentPianist

2 жыл бұрын

I've played only the first two up to this time, so I'm planning to upload them at some point. A lot of work to prepare for a recording though! They are pretty fearsome.

Absolutely mind-blowing. I never saw this before; thank you!

Among pianistic colleagues I've never heard anyone pronounce his name with the accent on the first syllable, only on the last syllable.

There's a new channel that's publishing loads of Bolet's live recordings. Some fabulous stuff.

Thanks so much for this. Bolet's tone is out of this world. Yesterday, I listened and watched his performance of the Rachmaninoff 3rd concerto: it made a deep impression: yes, it was rather lubugrious, but every melodic line was wonderfully projected, there was not a hint of harshness, and, for the first time, this work didn't sound "notey". And, on a "normally voiced" Baldwin, the piano soared above the orchestra. Better still, from a pianistic perspective, he made it look so easy. A bit like Cherkassky. Would you consider making a video about Rudolf Serkin? He was the only pianist Horowitz had anything good to say about!

@farazhaiderpiano

Жыл бұрын

Horowitz had good things to say about Ferruccio Busoni, Emil von Sauer (Liszt’s pupil), Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Alfred Cortot, as well. Also, Horowitz was very encouraging to his Canadian pupil, Ronald Turini.

I was so lucky to hear Bolet in Adelaide in the 70s (I think). It’s when I first heard the Petrarch sonnets, so glorious. The local critic was mean and nasty whinging about romantic styling. I think I have some of the concert on cassette (recorded from a radio rebroadcast).

Jorge Bolet is very little known? Not really. Saperton, yes. But I think it was said he'd fall apart in public performance.

Thank you for sharing this, Cole. I have watched repeatedly Bolet’s masterclass on the Rach 3, a BBC production kzread.info/dash/bejne/dnmet7ialbnVZ7A.html and have been impressed with his approach to teaching. His suggestions are never “corrections” and they illustrate his ability to hear the wealth of inner melodies within the texture of the concerto. This video will also provide further background on Bolet’s career for your audience.

@TheIndependentPianist

2 жыл бұрын

That is a very fascinating class, thank you for sharing the link. Bolet was a very thoughtful teacher and musician.

@GaryGoldbaugh

11 ай бұрын

I love how he says to them "It's not an easy one, is it?" at the end...

Really enjoy your videos. Gratified that you chose to focus one two of my own favourite pianists: Wilhelm Kempff (who is my absolute favourite musician) and Jorge Bolet. Too young to have seen Kempff live. Saw Bolet 4 times in recital, London late 1980s. He had the most beguiling touch of any pianist I've seen live - and I've seen quite a few. Be interested to hear you talk about Maurizio Pollini. My God, in the Seventies and Eighties his mastery of the keyboard was uncanny. Saw him give virtually note-perfect performances of the Liszt sonata and Beethoven's 106.

@nickk8416

3 ай бұрын

Yes! Two of my favorites pianists ever. Kempff's Beethoven Sonata's started me loving classical piano at 15. Then 1983 "Bolet Meets Rachmaninoff" master class on Rach 3 totally sold me on Bolet. The great master. I think we have great taste in pianists! :)

@davidgoulden5956

3 ай бұрын

@@nickk8416 I salute your taste Nick. I too started with Kempff (the Schubert impromptus) and Rubinstein, and I loved the Bolet masterclasses shown on BBC2 in '83. Have you checked out the many J Bolet live recitals on YT? There is some superb stuff, including Schumann's Fantasiestucke op.12. I met him backstage at the RFH after the final recital I attended of his. Wish I'd told him (the truth) that I loved his tone, but there were other well-wishers present and he was a touch impatient (not with me) so... It was a Sunday afternoon recital. Noisiest audience I've ever had the misfortune to be part of. Persistent unmuffled coughing. Perhaps that explained why the Maestro was a little brusque. The wretched audience put me off going to concerts for years. HAPPY EASTER. D.