Jorge Bolet was born in Havana, Cuba, on 15 November 1914 and went on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. A phenomenal technician and musician, he was capable of drawing a rich and velvety sound from the piano.
Jorge Bolet (1975)
A leading advocate of Romantic pianism, Bolet allowed for delicate fluctuations of tempo, something he called “flexibility within the pulse of music,” to create interpretations of great subtlety and refinement.
As a young student at Curtis, Bolet studied with David Saperton, the first pianist to play the entire original compositions as well as the complete transcriptions of Leopold Godowsky. To celebrate Bolet’s birthday, let’s explore his affinity with Godowsky’s incredibly demanding piano music.
Jorge Bolet plays Chopin/Godowsky
Through Saperton to Godowsky
David Saperton was actually married to Godowsky’s daughter, Vanita, the sister of silent movie star Dagmar Godowsky. Godowsky introduced Saperton to Josef Hofmann, and Saperton introduced Godowsky to Bolet.
David Saperton (1915)
Bolet had the opportunity to encounter Godowsky’s music at close range, studying a number of his compositions with the composer himself.
As Bolet wrote in his foreword to Jeremy Nicholas’ biography of Godowsky, “Having studied a great many of Godowsky’s major works personally with the master, they have become an integral part of my musical personality and repertoire.”
Leopold Godowsky: 3 Symphonische Metamorphosen Johann Strauss’scher Themen: No. 2. Die Fledermaus (Jorge Bolet, piano)
Beyond the Notes
During a Decca recording session, Bolet acknowledged that the Chopin-Godowsky Studies are difficult to play. “It’s not just the notes, though you have to be 100 per cent accurate in recording. One sour note and the whole piece goes.”
Bolet was always trying to capture the spirit behind the music, as he explained, “There are salons where the ladies are elegant and where hands are gently kissed. It is of such ladies that we must think when we play Godowsky, not of dancers wearing après-ski boots.”
Leopold Godowsky: Schubert – Ballet music from Rosamunde (Jorge Bolet, piano)
A Virtuoso Without Equal
Harold C. Schonberg, music critic, author, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, offered an extraordinary verdict on Bolet’s playing. “One doubts if any living pianist could have duplicated Bolet’s playing in this repertory [Godowsky], and this is a considered judgement.”
“There may be others who can play the notes, but Bolet, with his roots in an older tradition than most today can summon up, has a feeling for the line, the elegance, the suave sound, the tapered phrase of high Romanticism that is virtually unmatched today.”
“It was a technical and artistic tour de force, all the more impressive in that Bolet was not even breathing hard.”
Leopold Godowsky: Bizet – L’Arlesienne Suite No. 1: III. Adagietto (Jorge Bolet, piano)
Virtuosity Meets Imagination
Listeners and critics recognised a creative affinity between composer and interpreter, as Bolet was not simply reproducing Godowsky’s technical structures; he seemingly understood the composer’s imaginative world.
Bryce Morrison discussed Bolet’s Chopin-Godowsky performances in 1979, describing the music as “Ingenious, spicy and teasingly decadent, such music needs a giant technique and, even more important, an artist capable of sophisticated elegance and wit. Jorge Bolet has all these qualities in abundance.”
Leopold Godowsky radically reimagined works by Chopin, Strauss and Bizet and stretched the piano’s vocabulary in completely new directions. However, beneath the technical acrobatics resides a deep musical logic, with Godowsky finding ways to make even the seemingly impossible sound natural.
Leopold Godowsky (1915)
Bolet brought the same combination of technical command, tonal imagination, and aristocratic refinement to his performances of Godowsky. He understood that this music concealed exceptional beauty and expressive depth.
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Leopold Godowsky: Elegy (version for the left hand) (Jorge Bolet, piano)
