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Jorge Bolet's Complete Decca Recordings · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Dissler, and welcome to the Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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us keep in production, which is very important.
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I had a request from a listener to talk about
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the Bach set that Deca brought out fairly recently
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of the complete recordings for Deca by the great
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pianist, George Bolet. And this was a long -awaited
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project, and I wrote a review of it for ClassicsToday
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.com, which you can access if you are an insider
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subscriber. But I thought that this was a release
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that's worth talking about and going through
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in detail. In many respects, George Bolette,
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who lived from 1914 until 1990, was kind of an
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outlier. in his era, he was a romantic pianist
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who basically came of age in an anti -romantic
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era. And unlike many of his American colleagues
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who modeled themselves after pianists like Arthur
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Schnabel and Rudolf Sirken, Bollett's role models
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were Rachmaninoff and Gudovsky, and he had worked
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with Gudovsky as well as Joseph Hoffman at the
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Curtis Institute. And maybe this contributed
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somewhat to his career struggles in the 1940s
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and 1950s. But the romantic revival of the 1960s
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and early 70s somehow cleared the road for Bolet's
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type of pianism and by the end of the 1970s his
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international reputation was pretty much in place
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and it led to an association with Deca that would
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last until his death. Now it has to be said though
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that George Bolet's Deca legacy gives a rather
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skewed view of his artistry. For starters, Bolet
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was open in his preference for the stimulus of
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a live audience to playing piano under studio
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conditions and he broached the microphone not
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so much with dread as I think with diffidence
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and he actually welcomed bootlegging and he encouraged
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his fans to tape his concerts on the sly. And
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the other thing is that Bolet was in his mid
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-60s when he signed with Deka, and by then he
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was more of a seasoned aristocrat than the young
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firebrand that he was, by evidence of some of
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the best recordings he made in the early 1950s,
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like the Chopin Four Scherzi and the Prokofiev
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Second Concerto. But the Deka recordings still
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contain many, many beautiful things, and I'm
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going to be talking about them. Before he signed
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with Deka, he made several discs for the Lozo
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Lira label, which was distributed by Deka. And
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the first one of these discs was a recital devoted
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to some of Leopold Godofsky's transcriptions
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of Chopin etudes and Chopin waltzes. And having
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studied some of these with Godofsky, from what
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I understand, I think that Bolet's really genuine
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affinity for this music really comes as no surprise.
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And I remember hearing George Bolet play some
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of these works in public at the Metropolitan
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Museum of Art, and his gorgeous sound just engulfed
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the hall. Now there have been more scintillating
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live bolette performances for certain of the
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Chopin -Gudovsky etudes, but the performances
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here have a fluidity and a majesty and an eloquence
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that really really comes off quite well. And
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then for Loizo Elira he made a list disc and
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immediately after that he signed with DECA and
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he recorded quite a lot of list for DECA. Generally,
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I think that the Liszt legacy of George Bolet
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for Deka really is the prize and the center of
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his Deka discography. Now, generally speaking,
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Bolet's suave phrasing and his full -bodied sonority
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and kind of elegant reserve that he brought to
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Liszt pretty much bypassed the showmanship and
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the panache and the Elan that we associate with
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list players who go the total opposite extreme
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like Georges Chifra or Lazar Berman. But there
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are so many beautiful things here, like if you
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listen to the concert etude Waldessrauschen,
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to take one example, Bolet... animates the piece,
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not so much through speed, but through really
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shaping the baselines. And he really gauges the
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tempo accelerations to really marvelous cumulative
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effect. I hope you don't mind if I quote myself.
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This is a review that I wrote of Deka's box set
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devoted to George Bolet's list. And I wrote that
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The passages often treated mechanically, such
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as the unisons at the outset of Feastal Waltz
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No. 1, or the taxing octave sequences in the
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B minor sonata, the so -called Dante sonata,
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and orage from Anne de Pelerinage, plus the glissandos
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all over, totentants, truly sing under George
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Bullitt's fingers. and listen also to the Don
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Juan fantasy where Mozart's original vocal lines
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in the central Don Giovanni -Zerlina duet patiently
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float under and above the elaborate filigree.
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So that's a pretty good quote and I still stand
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by that. The Liszt transcendental etudes in this
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recording I think are much more subtle than scintillating,
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but that was also true about Bolet's earlier
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recordings of the Liszt transcendentals for the
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ensayo label, and also the recording he made
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of most of the transcendental etudes in the late
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1950s for RCA. But I think that the malediction
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and the totentance and the Hungarian fantasy
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count among Bolet's best deca -orchestral collaborations,
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and these are with Ivan Fischer and the London
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Symphony Orchestra. He also recorded with Fischer
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and the LSO, the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto.
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And I really like this recording because It's
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symphonically oriented, and it's not a show -offy
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kind of piece that just puts the piano up front.
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It really has the piano integrated into the orchestral
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fabric, and it kind of reminds me in a way of
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what Siketa Costas, Rachman, off third is like,
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or think about Van Clyburn, or the Vladimir Ashkenazi
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Eugene Ormandy recording. And when it comes to
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solo Rachmaninoff, Bolet generally stresses detailed
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refinement over kinetic thrust, and he almost
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always wins me over. Except, for some reason,
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the G minor prelude, that famous one, Op. 23
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No. 5, he plays it so sluggishly. It just is
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completely dead in this performance. But the
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variation sets are really very beautiful, and
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the transcription's really, really very well
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done. George Ballett's recording of the Brahms
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Handel variations comes to life mainly in the
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final fugue, but its coupling is much, much better.
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It's a marvelous performance of Max Reger's Telemann
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variations. I just find this piece so tedious,
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but George Ballet's recording really was the
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reference recording until Marc Andre Hamelin
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came along. Now we get to some of the concertos
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in the set. The cadenzas are probably the only
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things really worth talking about in the Schumann
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and Grieg concertos with Ricardo Chailly and
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the Concertgebouw Orchestra. I just find Bolette
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is so lifeless and dull in these performances.
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But they do the Frank symphonic variations much
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better. And in this Bach set. It's presented
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in its original CD coupling with Shahi's recording
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of the Frank Symphony, which is also with a concert
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cabal. This is a marvelous recording. I think
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the Bolette, Charles de Troyes, Montreal collaborations
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in the Tchaikovsky first, the Rachmaninoff second,
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and the two Chopin concertos never were competitive.
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although maybe Bolette wakes up a little bit
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in the Chopin F minor concerto's rondo finale.
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There's an excellent Schumann fantasy here. It's
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a very fine performance, and it's coupled with
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Schumann's Carnival, which is kind of hit and
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miss. But there's a selection of 16 Debussy preludes,
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and Bolette is just dog -tired in this recording,
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and there are a lot of textual misreadings. I'm
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not going to go through all of them. I think
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I cited them in an earlier review once, but this
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is really just not boletted as best. And there's
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a Schubert disc, too, where he plays the A minor
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sonata, Deutsch No. 784. The finale is marked
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Allegro Vivace, but Bolet's tempo is very labored
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moderato. I mean, it's just boring as hell. But
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I kind of like the A major Deutsch number 959.
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Sonata, especially the first movement, because
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there's a kind of firmness and gravitas that
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I think is kind of attractive. It's not very
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charming at all or lyrical. In a way, it kind
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of parallels that old Rudolf Sirken recording
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of this piece, which was very austere and grim.
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I didn't talk about Bolet's Chopin for Deka.
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Sorry, I should have talked about that before.
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His Chopin ballads are not the most dramatic
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and ardent, but they're beautifully played. He
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plays the barcarole very beautifully, and also
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the F minor fantasy he plays very well. Now,
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some people think that the studio recording for
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Deka of the 24 Preludes Opus 28 pales next to
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the live Carnegie Hall recording for RCA from
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1974 from his Carnegie Hall concert. That's kind
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of the critical consensus. But I do like the
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studio preludes because they are softer edged,
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but they are very scrupulous and poetic and they
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really hold up over repeated hearing. So I'm
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a minority opinion here. In February 1990, Bolette
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made a studio recording containing some Chopin
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Nocturnes and the Berceuse, and these were his
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final recording sessions, and they are released
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here for the first time, and his playing is just
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slow and enervated and with no energy at all.
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He's just obviously tired and not interested.
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Apparently these were mastered from a cassette
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dub from whatever the original master tape was.
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I don't know whatever happened to the master
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tape, but they don't sound great and the playing
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isn't really all that great. There's a marvelous
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1988 studio disc with Frank's prelude aria and
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finale and the prelude chorale and fugue. I think
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this is one of Bolet's better deca recordings.
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He's really, really involved in these performances.
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However, there is a live recording in this set
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that was taken from a concert in Alabama, and
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it has an even better performance of the Frank
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Prelude, Choral and Fugue. It also has the Mendelssohn
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Prelude and Fugue in E minor. and a wonderful
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performance of the Liszt fantasy on Bellini's
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Norma. And it just makes me wish that Decca had
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recorded Bolet in concert more often. I know
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for a fact that Decca did record Bolet at Carnegie
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Hall in 1980, and that tape kind of circulates
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in the underground. But unfortunately, we just
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had this one live recording. And for this reason,
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I would say that nobody who really cares about
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George Bolette should be without the Marston
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labels, amazing six CD anthology of live performances,
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which is called George Bolette volume two, ambassador
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from the golden age and also. the Audit label
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brought out three multi -disc volumes devoted
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to George Bolet's German radio recordings. And
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these all, I think, show Bolet to be much more
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scintillating in live performance or even live
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in the radio studio. But still in all, I think
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serious piano mavens will want to know about
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the Decca Complete Bolet edition and It includes
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a booklet with full discographical information,
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and there's a very sensitive and very informative
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essay in the DECA box by Jonathan Summers. Now,
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do you want all of these recordings? Is it worth
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getting the box? It's hard to say. I would cherry
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pick if I was you, although if you do buy the
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box, you'll probably gravitate more toward the
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better recordings than the ones that I like the
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least. I'm sure you will. But certainly Bolet's
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list, his Godofsky, his Franc, some of his Chopin,
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and of course the live Alabama concert are all
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definitely keepers. Oh yeah, and the Reger -Telemann
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variations, if you can deal with such a boring,
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tedious piece. But you know, Bolet plays it as
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if it's the greatest music in the world. This
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is Jed Dissler and you've been listening to the
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Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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recordings. Thank you so much for being with
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me and I look forward to you and I being together
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for our next Piano Maven episode.