Jorge Bolet – Chopin: Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 No. 1 | Colpix CP 415 (1960)

Jorge Bolet – Chopin: Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 No. 1 [5:15] | Colpix CP 415 (1960) Bolet draws from the F minor Nocturne an amplitude of feeling that its outward reticence can easily conceal: the opening proceeds with dark, measured dignity, its long line sustained by an unfailingly vocal touch above the measured left-hand gait, before the middle section erupts with a concentrated, almost venomous ferocity unmatched in his other known accounts - the texture hardens, the accents bite and the gathering agitation seems momentarily to threaten the work’s composure; when calm returns, it bears the full memory of that disturbance, and the performance closes with a nobility and emotional completeness out of all proportion to the piece’s scale. 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.)