youtube.com/watch?v=vc1MNYb- … re=related
Someone convince me Bolet can do more than play slow! He told Bryce Morrison something along the lines of ‘the slower you go, the more exciting it gets!’ I agree with that to an extent for acoustical and clarity purposes but he overdoes it!
I have heard a fair bit of his Liszt and it just doesn’t do it for me except the Tannhauser trans. which is amazing!
His Liszt set is from when he was older and in poor health.
His Liszt stuff from the 50s and 60s shows him to be as much a beast as Cziffra ever was. Also, check out his early LP of Prok 2. It’s nuts.
His Rach 3 (live in the late 60’s, not the rec with I Fisher) is phenomenal, one of the best ever. I agree his concept of the Galop is a bit strange, but I heard him live, and that man could play piano.
True, that Bolet Rach 3rd is ridiculously good. Easily in my top 5.
Bolet should have quit playing the virtuoso showpieces at the end of his career.
I have a bootleg of Bolet playing this (I think its a bootleg, cound juts be the LP, but I dont think it is), and he cuts a big chunk of the cadenza out. I doesnt work for me, looses most of the tension.
Bolet was a lot like Horowitz in the sense that they were brilliant colourists with big but imperfect techniques. They both took short-cuts by omitting notes/simplifying stuff. That’s not a criticism btw.
I posted the bootleg recording with Stoky a while back.
That rec is SICK. I just love it.