MUSIC REVIEW : PIANIST JORGE BOLET IN RECITAL AT ROYCE HALL

With a recital at the start of a new year by a musician of Jorge Bolet’s longevity, the situation seemed right for a profound meditation on the passage of time. But Saturday night, Bolet’s pianism proved timeless, an absolute standard unto itself.

Though Bolet is still an indomitably stiff, patrician figure, the years were apparent as he took the Royce Hall stage. But they disappeared at the keyboard under the force of a technique that is the despair of much younger fingers everywhere.

It is not simply a question of speed and accuracy, strength and stamina. Bolet’s rare degree of control extends to coloring separate lines with their own distinct touch and articulation, simultaneously.

That was most apparent on the second half of his generous program. Bolet is in the process of recording the complete piano works of Liszt, and extended consideration was clear in his coherent shaping of the passionate flights of “Venezia e Napoli.”

The Ballade in G-minor that Grieg composed as a set of variations on a Norwegian folk song is a relative novelty. Complete mastery of a broad palette and a sure sense of climactic direction, however, made it work effectively in Bolet’s carefully constructed program.

Bolet found the heart of the emotional matter in the last movement of Schumann’s Fantasy in C, but the work as a whole lacked the unifying vision that he brought to Grieg and Liszt.

The opening Haydn set, the F-minor Variations and the Sonata No. 45 in E-flat, was gorgeously played in an anachronistic style. Bolet’s pedaling and rubato in particular proved excessive.

Bolet seemed to get stronger as the evening progressed. He required little prompting to add a set of Chopin favorites in encore, although if an excuse were needed, the applause finally blossomed into a standing ovation.