Jorge Bolet was my great uncle. And I got to him listening and performing Liszt. I did not have a chance to now him very closely but every serious musician I have met tells me that he was the best Liszt performer. He also got lots of awards for rediscovering Liszt Recital. So please do not say he is not for Liszt pieces.
There is much to praise in this performance but one standout element for me is the balance, beauty and fullness of his chords. They are always perfect - - without any exception I have heard
also they see technique in fast and loud, but technique is also playing in soft seductive, colour etc! no one can play Auf dem wasser zu singen like him! no one!
Having studied with (and about) Bolet, I can tell you that his choice of "filling in" the chords was deliberate and well-thought out. Whether or not he changed that penultimate chord, we don't know unless he told someone that was a choice he had made. It works. He had been taught to alternate fingers in his trills, and that is why they may seem to "lock" as someone suggested. (That would not be my choice of fingerings.) He did teach very great respect for (and analysis of ) the score.
Precious, precious interpretantion! Great tone, colors, brilliance! He was an old-school virtuoso, with technique that cared about making great music first, not just playing note-perfect, fast and loud.
Bolet is the most underrated pianist...a "Alien" Technique!!! I mean his Technique is not from the Earth!! For me he is one of the greatest..of all time
he was one the top five pianists in the history. and he was a really passionate smoker. he even couldnt stand it if he couldnt smoke at the intermissions of concerts. he also died on cigarettes. thank you very much for this record. one thing- put the same video under the Titel-´Liszt, other people who doesnt know him should also hear what Bolet was.
lovesGenet-you have said it all. Bolet played through his experience-his life, his teachers,his constant travels, the great musicians he met-all the stuff you don't ever learn from teachers in Conservatoires.
I have just recently bought the Liszt Piano works by Jorge Bolet on Decca a mammoth 9 CD's, for me he is one of the finest interpreters of Liszt's piano music played in true romantic style.
I'm 17, and my piano teacher gave me this piece to learn over the summer and next year, along with a Chopin etude, Prokofiev's Diabolical Suggestion, Bach Prelude and Fugue in Ab minor, Third movement of Beethoven's Tempest Sonata (So I can complete the whole sonata), a Beethoven concerto, and a modern piece of her choice. I'm so excited.
You said it well. Bolet had studied with David Saperton, who had been a pupil of the great Jozef Hofmann--and if ever there was an aristocrat of the piano it was Hofmann, in a Golden Age of Romantic pianism when there were so many Aristocrats of the keyboard. I think Bolet could be seen as coming from that tradition. His Liszt playing always puts the music first, rather than presenting it as only pyrotechnics and bombast.
he plays nice, definitely a professional with his own distinctive style. And for those who are looking for the perfect pianist to come, rest assured...Franz Liszt was the one and only, nothing will ever come close, and since then we had a miriad of pianists with awesome talent but still, Liszt was a GOD
I like this performance of Bolet's more than the very good performance on UA-cam by Pletnev - and I am a great fan of Pletnev. This seems to me to have more rhythmn, more drama and just as much clarity.
@fraanciscoo I have terrible ears, but from what I can hear he plays e-flat minor in the right hand instead of g flat major, but keeps the left hand chord in g flat major. so he plays some sort of a seventh chord on e-flat major. might be by accident getting too carried away in his playing. there might be some other notes in there but i can't really tell.
You can interpret Liszt with freedom in his Rhapsody's. This man does that. Interpretation is also part of the creation of art. Interpretation of the composer is slightly different than the one who plays the piece, and interpretation of the listener is also slightly different. Everyone can find different meaning in the Mona Lisa.. Consider that.
I haven't heared Cliburn's Liszt but his Rach 3 with Kondrashin is one of my favourite interpretations. A big bold majestic account. Sorry but I'm not familiar with Sergenia. Perhaps u could enlighten me?
yeah man it still amazes me...i´d love to fill here this youtube with compliments for him. i tell ya, in terms that this was a concert, who has the control in concert in that grade?...in concerts there are always things going lost. but this...i am really amazed.
it is just fucking amazing...this brilliance in concert. bolet was an another underrated greatness of this world. this is surely a better pianist than,lets say, rubinstein or not? everybody knows rubinstein, but how many knows bolet...like francescatti on violin, or janos starker on cello. this bolet is AT LEAST so great as the greatest famous pianist. Who the fuck can play this Hungarian rhapsody in CONCERT so brilliant.d´you know how difficult this piece is ?...Im very moved. thanks.
Liszt is the Hungarian phonetic spelling for a German name, List. Liszt was born in Raiding, present-day Burgenland, Austria. He grew up speaking German and never learned Hungarian. He probably had little if any Hungarian blood. I think he "marketed" himself as a Hungarian because it seemed exotic and gave him so much more charisma than being just another Austrian pianist.
A very nice performance. Seemed a bit over-dramatic at times, but hey, it's part of the performance. I also found it interesting that he used a more "straight-fingered" approach to the keys, much like Horowitz.
He hits many wrong notes here, but it's still a WONDERFUL performance, full of personality and panache, and truly aristocratic in spirit and dash. Bolet was a superb Liszt interpreter because he was not only a brilliant virtuoso but a very spontaneous and living musician, full of sensuality, temperament and wit. A Latin!
@Starbirdy9999 What's wrong with the Baroque period? =P Think before you say stuff. ANYWAY, WHOOOOOO!!! great piece, great performer, I want to play a hungarian rhapsody now...
It's only an accident that the Magyarized spelling of a German name, List, spells a word in the Hungarian language. If you can substantiate your claim that Adam Liszt was an ethnic Hungarian I will be impressed. However everything I have read has claimed that Adam Liszt was the descendent of ethnic Germans who settled in western Hungary a few generations earlier.
At the risk of being a total bore, because I gave say this so many times elsewhere on UA-cam, Bolet was so tragically underrated. Every posting on here just confirms it for me.
Franz Liszt was born in into an ethnic Hungarian[3][4][5] family on October 22, 1811, in the village of Raiding (Hungarian: Doborján it was the Hasburg empire composed by the actual HUNGARY and Austria it was so normal that Hungarian people were living in Austria and by the way his nationality was italian and for that reason he was rejected by the Parisien conservatory because he was NOT French, I think you know only part of his life and BTW he was very hungarian in his way of life..
Unlike Horowitz and Cziffra, Bolet could be over cautious in virtuso works such as Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, Totentanz,the Hungarian Fantasy and Piano Concertos. They need a feeling of abandon and improvisatory flair. However, he had a certain aristocratic reserve and nobility and always produced a beautiful cantabile and full sonority at climaxes. His version of the Wagner/Liszt Tannhauser Overture 'live' from Carnegie Hall (1974) is superb.
well there are not many pianists who can do this piece "on the stage" without any take, or cut. there are many recordings, always "studio records", none concert. bolet should be praised as one of the best technician on the piano. this cannot be done better than that. and in a concert hall, actually we witness here something like a wonder. he makes allmost no mistake, the middle part both hands very difficult. maybe a cziffra, or richter could do such a thing, bolet belongs also to this legaue.
Mikhail Pletnev's rendition of this piece (available here on UA-cam) is close to perfection in my opinion. I like the clarity of Bolet's playing though.
@smb12321 man... i loved that "at 4:04 he had B flat...." comment :) but i think certain critical opinions(like ashkenazy plays the coda better or something) could be allowed, cos they help viewers get aware of different performances as well...
Sorry--Liszt was NOT an ethnic Hungarian. His family was German, as was his last name. Yes--Raiding was considered to be part of Hungary at that time. After WW 1 there was a plebiscite and residents of that part of western Hungary voted to join Austria as part of the state, or land of Burgenland, since they were all or mostly Germanic by language and/or ethnicity.
Compare if you will this excellent performance with another elsewhere,as self-centred and wilful as this is correct and in the true Lisztian tradition.
Ok Deltar2r, I myself am a huge Liszt fan, and and will defend your statement of Liszt being a god...(lower case on purpose)...however, "one and only" is only in terms of style, type and taste. I can make the same argument for Chopin..(and defend it easily over Liszt)....but it would be only because I prefer his 'style' of playing...not because he is the one and only. It's apples to oranges. Liszt is unreal though.....just amazing.
Jorge Bolet was my great uncle. And I got to him listening and performing Liszt. I did not have a chance to now him very closely but every serious musician I have met tells me that he was the best Liszt performer. He also got lots of awards for rediscovering Liszt Recital. So please do not say he is not for Liszt pieces.
Ignore anyone who makes such stupid statements about Jorge. They are merely displaying their complete ignorance of the subject.
Your uncle is a giant in the piano world.
Thanks to an understanding nephew
Jorge Bolet was one of the greatest pianists of our era.
(I had the opportunity to hear him playing several times).
... I am in love with ur uncle.
Of all the interpretations I’ve heard (about ten), this is the most evenly modulated, the most serene. A quieter, non-bombastic passion.
Jorge Bolet is hte best Liszt performer of all time and one of the most gifted pianists. His technique is incredible!
Bolet's performance is always so beautiful
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR BOLET PLAYING THIS!!! It is my absolute favorite version of this.
I simply love Bolet
beautifully aristocratic yet profoundly emotional, never any sentimentality; and rightly so.
I LOVE JORGE BOLET.
simple as.
Definitely one of my favourite performances of this rhapsody. Great Jorge Bolet!
Thank you for sharing this.
this man creates his own storms within the composition and he was a great teacher
There is much to praise in this performance but one standout element for me is the balance, beauty and fullness of his chords. They are always perfect - - without any exception I have heard
A pianist's pianist, for sure. He could do things on the piano that I haven't seen done anywhere else.
and for gods sake, those saying his technique wasnt great;
"bolet had one of the best techniques of the past 100 years, do you know nothing?"
One doesn't become a famous and respected pianist with "less than great" technique, some people just don't know what they're talking about
also they see technique in fast and loud, but technique is also playing in soft seductive, colour etc! no one can play Auf dem wasser zu singen like him! no one!
Beautiful playing by a great pianist! Bravo! TY.
Having studied with (and about) Bolet, I can tell you that his choice of "filling in" the chords was deliberate and well-thought out. Whether or not he changed that penultimate chord, we don't know unless he told someone that was a choice he had made. It works. He had been taught to alternate fingers in his trills, and that is why they may seem to "lock" as someone suggested. (That would not be my choice of fingerings.) He did teach very great respect for (and analysis of ) the score.
Bolet es 💯 perfecto es mi favorito desde niña ❤❤❤❤
He was great. Such great control, so gentle...great!
Always simply amazing Bolet. Touching the stars
beautiful,.... simply beautiful interpretation!!
i have everything from Liszt, grew up on him. Heard every interpretation worth listening to. And yes, he was a gift, a prodigy.
the best for ever and ever.....
I LOVE Bolet playing Liszt. Thanks so much!
Pongan la pelicula de Lizst para que escuchen Bolet era jovencito todavia Una Llama Magica. 😂❤
Precious, precious interpretantion! Great tone, colors, brilliance! He was an old-school virtuoso, with technique that cared about making great music first, not just playing note-perfect, fast and loud.
A super difficult piece. Bolet is my favorite for Liszt. He doesn't rush, is precise, and smooth at the same time. I couldn't learn this in 100 years.
Bolet el mejor pianista. 😅
Bolet is the most underrated pianist...a "Alien" Technique!!! I mean his Technique is not from the Earth!! For me he is one of the greatest..of all time
A completely unique interpretation... this man has golden ears to produce such a well honed sound. The keys sound like crystal clear bells.
Bolet was a brilliant Liszt performer.
Fue un joven talento muy guapo, mi favorito. 💌💌💌💌💌💌🇮🇷. La rapshhodia mas fificil. Bravooooii!
he was one the top five pianists in the history. and he was a really passionate smoker. he even couldnt stand it if he couldnt smoke at the intermissions of concerts. he also died on cigarettes. thank you very much for this record. one thing- put the same video under the Titel-´Liszt, other people who doesnt know him should also hear what Bolet was.
Desde. Mexico 🇲🇽 eres. Lá. Exelencia. 🖐️🤩
Grande pianista
lovesGenet-you have said it all. Bolet played through his experience-his life, his teachers,his constant travels, the great musicians he met-all the stuff you don't ever learn from teachers in Conservatoires.
I have just recently bought the Liszt Piano works by Jorge Bolet on Decca a mammoth 9 CD's, for me he is one of the finest interpreters of Liszt's piano music played in true romantic style.
The most beautiful Liszt.
Desde niña es mi favorito. ❤️
I'm 17, and my piano teacher gave me this piece to learn over the summer and next year, along with a Chopin etude, Prokofiev's Diabolical Suggestion, Bach Prelude and Fugue in Ab minor, Third movement of Beethoven's Tempest Sonata (So I can complete the whole sonata), a Beethoven concerto, and a modern piece of her choice. I'm so excited.
played most of it too.. nice program for the next year :) good luck with it.
DE LOS GRANDES DEL PIANO.
You said it well. Bolet had studied with David Saperton, who had been a pupil of the great Jozef Hofmann--and if ever there was an aristocrat of the piano it was Hofmann, in a Golden Age of Romantic pianism when there were so many Aristocrats of the keyboard. I think Bolet could be seen as coming from that tradition. His Liszt playing always puts the music first, rather than presenting it as only pyrotechnics and bombast.
Bolet played many times a year for Hoffman during all of his Curtis years., Saperton was Hoffman's assistant
Bravo!
Love the how he nicely enhanced the left hand at the 9:42 passage ;)
God that melody from around 6:30 in makes me cry every time. Liszt randomly put it there just for that reason.
The power, the finesse, the crystalline articulation. Bolet is not remotely surpassable.
Extraordinario.!!!!!!!
Y Guillermo Tell!
9:34 watch his left hand!!!!!! what a powerfull but controlled action!
I think I remember him mentioning in another video that he got that from Hofmann.
Best
he plays nice, definitely a professional with his own distinctive style. And for those who are looking for the perfect pianist to come, rest assured...Franz Liszt was the one and only, nothing will ever come close, and since then we had a miriad of pianists with awesome talent but still, Liszt was a GOD
Bolet. interpreto a Liszt en la película Una llama. Mágica.
Incomparable. 🎼💌🇮🇷
Wonderful! Many thanks! BRs
I just listened to Arthur Rubinstein play the same piece. I prefer Bolet's interpretation.
same here
I have two simple questions: if Bolet is not "your cup of tea" why do you keep returning here? Why do you bother to listen to him?
Mannhummel: an article you may find enlightening on this subject can be googled on the internet: "How Hungarian was Liszt?" by Coby Lubliner.
I like this performance of Bolet's more than the very good performance on UA-cam by Pletnev - and I am a great fan of Pletnev. This seems to me to have more rhythmn, more drama and just as much clarity.
inspirational
@smb12321
Yes, u can hear it directly, that he is from the old school.
his piano is SINGING...
not shouting, barking....
@Will84ABA -He is perhaps the most underrated of all the twentieth century piano greats.
@fraanciscoo I have terrible ears, but from what I can hear he plays e-flat minor in the right hand instead of g flat major, but keeps the left hand chord in g flat major. so he plays some sort of a seventh chord on e-flat major. might be by accident getting too carried away in his playing. there might be some other notes in there but i can't really tell.
A true master of Lizst!
No todos los concertistas. ,pueden con la Rapsodia 12 de Lizst. 🇮🇷🎼🎶
Great!
You can interpret Liszt with freedom in his Rhapsody's. This man does that. Interpretation is also part of the creation of art. Interpretation of the composer is slightly different than the one who plays the piece, and interpretation of the listener is also slightly different.
Everyone can find different meaning in the Mona Lisa.. Consider that.
The great piano era……😍
I haven't heared Cliburn's Liszt but his Rach 3 with Kondrashin is one of my favourite interpretations. A big bold majestic account. Sorry but I'm not familiar with Sergenia. Perhaps u could enlighten me?
yeah man it still amazes me...i´d love to fill here this youtube with compliments for him. i tell ya, in terms that this was a concert, who has the control in concert in that grade?...in concerts there are always things going lost. but this...i am really amazed.
Bolet no necesita otro. Nivel.
El genial. para. Lizst.
it is just fucking amazing...this brilliance in concert. bolet was an another underrated greatness of this world. this is surely a better pianist than,lets say, rubinstein or not? everybody knows rubinstein, but how many knows bolet...like francescatti on violin, or janos starker on cello. this bolet is AT LEAST so great as the greatest famous pianist. Who the fuck can play this Hungarian rhapsody in CONCERT so brilliant.d´you know how difficult this piece is ?...Im very moved. thanks.
La 12 es de alta dificultad. mas que las demas. ❤️🇮🇷
Hagan caso de las criticas de los que sabemos ,Bolet es genio.
Disco Una llama mágica. 🎶🎶
Liszt is the Hungarian phonetic spelling for a German name, List. Liszt was born in Raiding, present-day Burgenland, Austria. He grew up speaking German and never learned Hungarian. He probably had little if any Hungarian blood. I think he "marketed" himself as a Hungarian because it seemed exotic and gave him so much more charisma than being just another Austrian pianist.
Actually he loved Hungary and you can visit his flat off Andrasy Street in Budapest where he returned in later years.
A very nice performance. Seemed a bit over-dramatic at times, but hey, it's part of the performance. I also found it interesting that he used a more "straight-fingered" approach to the keys, much like Horowitz.
He hits many wrong notes here, but it's still a WONDERFUL performance, full of personality and panache, and truly aristocratic in spirit and dash.
Bolet was a superb Liszt interpreter because he was not only a brilliant virtuoso but a very spontaneous and living musician, full of sensuality, temperament and wit. A Latin!
@Starbirdy9999 What's wrong with the Baroque period? =P Think before you say stuff.
ANYWAY, WHOOOOOO!!! great piece, great performer, I want to play a hungarian rhapsody now...
Questo è un grande pianista! Grandi le sue interpretazioni di Rachmaninov
It's only an accident that the Magyarized spelling of a German name, List, spells a word in the Hungarian language. If you can substantiate your claim that Adam Liszt was an ethnic Hungarian I will be impressed. However everything I have read has claimed that Adam Liszt was the descendent of ethnic Germans who settled in western Hungary a few generations earlier.
At the risk of being a total bore, because I gave say this so many times elsewhere on UA-cam, Bolet was so tragically underrated. Every posting on here just confirms it for me.
Franz Liszt was born in into an ethnic Hungarian[3][4][5] family on October 22, 1811, in the village of Raiding (Hungarian: Doborján it was the Hasburg empire composed by the actual HUNGARY and Austria it was so normal that Hungarian people were living in Austria and by the way his nationality was italian and for that reason he was rejected by the Parisien conservatory because he was NOT French, I think you know only part of his life and BTW he was very hungarian in his way of life..
Wonderful. It is full of life and musicality. I still prefer Murray Perahia's rendition of this piece though.
Unlike Horowitz and Cziffra, Bolet could be over cautious in virtuso works such as Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, Totentanz,the Hungarian Fantasy and Piano Concertos. They need a feeling of abandon and improvisatory flair. However, he had a certain aristocratic reserve and nobility and always produced a beautiful cantabile and full sonority at climaxes. His version of the Wagner/Liszt Tannhauser Overture 'live' from Carnegie Hall (1974) is superb.
well there are not many pianists who can do this piece "on the stage" without any take, or cut. there are many recordings, always "studio records", none concert. bolet should be praised as one of the best technician on the piano. this cannot be done better than that. and in a concert hall, actually we witness here something like a wonder. he makes allmost no mistake, the middle part both hands very difficult. maybe a cziffra, or richter could do such a thing, bolet belongs also to this legaue.
Mikhail Pletnev's rendition of this piece (available here on UA-cam) is close to perfection in my opinion. I like the clarity of Bolet's playing though.
magific
A interpretação dele é mais musical que a maioria dos pianistas
Is Super!!!
Mikayel
Bolet nacio para Lizst. 💯🏅
@smb12321 man... i loved that "at 4:04 he had B flat...." comment :) but i think certain critical opinions(like ashkenazy plays the coda better or something) could be allowed, cos they help viewers get aware of different performances as well...
Desde siempre 🇮🇷🖐️
Can someone explain the penultimate chord (10:08)? I've never heard it played that way. I assume it's on purpose. Nevertheless, it sounds great.
the first theme is so dark i would like to do research on this piece, when it was written and wat Liszt was going thru at the time
Sorry--Liszt was NOT an ethnic Hungarian. His family was German, as was his last name. Yes--Raiding was considered to be part of Hungary at that time. After WW 1 there was a plebiscite and residents of that part of western Hungary voted to join Austria as part of the state, or land of Burgenland, since they were all or mostly Germanic by language and/or ethnicity.
Compare if you will this excellent performance with another elsewhere,as self-centred and wilful as this is correct and in the true Lisztian tradition.
Ok Deltar2r, I myself am a huge Liszt fan, and and will defend your statement of Liszt being a god...(lower case on purpose)...however, "one and only" is only in terms of style, type and taste. I can make the same argument for Chopin..(and defend it easily over Liszt)....but it would be only because I prefer his 'style' of playing...not because he is the one and only. It's apples to oranges. Liszt is unreal though.....just amazing.
What score are you using to determine the wrong notes? I will look at the same edition that you have.
Cziffra ? Ya quisiera. 🎶🎶🎶🎶🇮🇷
hey look! its john cleese at 1:40
great performance too