Franz Liszt:
Années de Pelerinage. Premiere Année:
Suisse, S. 160 (excerpts)
Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (excerpts)
Liebesträume. 3 Notturnos, S. 541
Rhapsodie espagnole, S. 254

Moritz Moszkowski:
En automne, Op. 36/4

Camille Saint-Saens:
Le cygne ‘The Swan’ (arr. Leopold Godowsky)

Leopold Godowsky:
Le Salon
Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes by Johann Strauss ‘Die Fledermaus’ (The Bat)

Robert Schumann:
Liebeslied, S 266 (Widmung, Op. 25/1) (arr. Franz Liszt)

Frederic Chopin:
Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49
Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 29
Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp major, Op. 36
Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, Op. 51
Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66
Waltz in D-flat major, Op. 64/1 ‘Minute Waltz’
Etude in G-flat major, Op. 10/5

Claude Debussy:
Préludes. Premier Livre
Préludes. Deuxieme Livre

Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990), misleadingly labeled the "last Romantic" among 20th century pianists and marketed under this title when he achieved world fame at the end of hiscareer, was first and foremost a gentleman of the piano. Few pianists interpreted the great piano music of the 19th and early 20thcenturies with such unerring stylistic assurance and technical mastery that was at the same time completely free of vanity and striving for effect. Rather than vague sentimentality, Bolet - who studied at the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with David Saperton, son-in-law of the legendary pianist Leopold Godowsky, and later succeeded Rudolf Serkin as director of ist piano department - sought a balance between musical and pianistic intelligence. Thanks to these qualities, his recordings, which include not-uncontroversial transcriptions from the golden age of piano playing before 1914, are considered benchmarks. These recordings for the RIAS Berlin from 1962-73, featuring works by Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy alongwith highly virtuosic encores and arrangements by Moritz Moszkowski and Godowsky (among others), are no exception: here we experience a pianist and musician who rightly occupies aplace among the pantheon of great pianists. All the recordings in this three-CD box set are first releases from the master tapes.

Appearing soon, the follow-up CD broadens the selection to include concerto repertoire (concert recordings of Liszt's piano concertos with the RSO Berlin under Lawrence Foster / Edo de Waart); it also presents further great piano works by the composer (Tannhäuser Paraphrase, Années de pelerinage. Deuxieme année. Italie). The stereo recordings were made in 1971 and 1982 and offer testimony of the "late" Jorge Bolet.

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Recordings: Annees: March 15, 1963, Siemensvilla, Berlin-Lankwitz; Etudes: March 22, 1962, RIAS Funkhaus, Berlin – Studio 7; Liebestraume: January 5, 1966, Siemensvilla, Berlin-Lankwitz; Rhapsodie: March, 9, 1964, RIAS Funkhaus, Berlin – Studio 7