Jorge Bolet – Rigoletto Paraphrase S. 434 (after Verdi) | Colpix CP 415 (1960)

Jorge Bolet – Liszt: Rigoletto Paraphrase S. 434 (after Verdi) [6:03] | Colpix CP 415 (1960) What is exceptional in Bolet’s Rigoletto is the completeness with which he inhabits both its theatre and its pianism: each strand of the quartet assumes its own contour and emotional weight, the vocal lines seem to breathe through the keyboard, and the elaborate passagework arises from the drama rather than being superimposed upon it as display. In this unusually fleet and high-risk account, the final pages gather an almost headlong excitement, yet the texture remains lucid, the phrasing elevated and the sonority unmistakably his. Bars 75 to 82 are omitted here, and the same cut occurs in the recording of the paraphrase made during Bolet’s Hollywood sessions in 1959 for ‘Song Without End’, issued on the official soundtrack album, Colpix CP 506. CP 506 also makes an earlier cut, at bars 51 to 62, which is not taken on CP 415. No known edition sanctions the omission of bars 75 to 82 - the passage of repeated right-hand octaves - and Bolet retains it in none of his other commercially issued accounts: the 1969 Barcelona recording, first released by Ensayo and subsequently by RCA as LSC-3259; the Hunter College IPA Benefit Concert performance of 3 October 1970, issued by the International Piano Archives and later by Marston; or the 1982 Decca recording. He does, however, make precisely the same cut in his live Tanglewood performance of 4 August 1964 (the second of three encores after the twelve Transcendental Études). By the time of his two New York performances in 1970 - the Hunter College concert and a Washington Irving School recital on 19 December - he had abandoned it; nor does he take the cut in his Hunter College recital of 28 January 1973, broadcast by WNYC-FM. One hypothesis is that the cut was deemed necessary for the film soundtrack recording and that Bolet elected to maintain it for this Colpix recording and for performances over the next several years. Leopold Godowsky also omits bars 75 to 82 in his Brunswick recording of 4 September 1926 (matrix XE20048, Brunswick 50131, which runs to 5:38); but his is a highly individual, freely altered abridgement - very much a ‘Godowsky version’ of the paraphrase, shaped to the compass of a 78-rpm side - so it cannot be regarded as an editorial precedent, though the coincidence remains intriguing given the occasional personal coaching Bolet received from Godowsky in 1932-33. (It is a further curiosity that Brunswick 50131 couples the paraphrase with the Mendelssohn Rondo capriccioso, the two works standing side by side there as they do here.) Never reissued since 1961, the rare and long-overlooked Colpix LP CP 415 preserves a Jorge Bolet whom the commercial studio otherwise very seldom if ever caught: quicker than was generally his way, more volatile and willing to court danger, yet still commanding the singing line, aristocratic shaping, tonal finesse and nobility of utterance for which he was prized - qualities not compromised by the added heat, but intensified by it. It was perhaps typical of Bolet’s ill fortune prior to his final two decades that this LP remained long in the shadow of another Colpix release, CP 506, the official soundtrack album of ‘Song Without End’ (1960), the widespread assumption being that CP 415 merely presented in complete form the performances that were heavily abridged, or omitted altogether, on the soundtrack disc. In fact, CP 415 comprises entirely separate performances, recorded expressly for Colpix rather than drawn from the soundtrack sessions. And they find Bolet in the form of his life. Historical, discographical and programme notes accompanying this 2026 remastered edition (PDF): https://files.catbox.moe/sp5cmc.pdf (A note on the sound: The original mono pressing is notably constricted, with curtailed upper frequencies, a boxy tone and limited definition. In these remasterings I have sought discreetly to mitigate those shortcomings and to recover something of the piano’s natural breadth, colour and presence.)