When Jorge Bolet died in October 1990 the world lost one of its last ‘great Romantics’. Spirituality, a luxuriant tonal palette, a real sense of architecture, breadth, grandeur, all allied to a prodigious technique – these were just some of the qualities that informed his playing. Now, for the first time, Decca collects all the recordings he made for the label, from 1977 to 1990. Released for the first time and included in this set, is his last recording, a selection of Chopin’s Nocturnes and the Berceuse, recorded just seven months before his death.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1914, Bolet was the fifth of six children. Showing an early aptitude for the piano, Bolet was able, through private funding as well as pure serendipity (something that informed several key moments in his professional life), to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with David Saperton, who also taught Shura Cherkassky, Abbey Simon and the young Julius Katchen. Saperton was the son-in-law of Leopold Godowsky and later, Bolet took lessons with him.

Key among his projects for the label was a sequence of Liszt recordings, described by Gramophone as ‘an indispensable series’. Undeniable is his stamp on the original Liszt works, but have the transcriptions of the Schubert lieder ever taken wing like they do in these interpretations? He also recorded concertos by Grieg, Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff as well as solo works by the last three aforementioned.