Customer Reviews

Dinu Lipatti- Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58 / Enescu: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 25 / Brahms: Waltzes, Op. 39: 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15 / Ravel: Alborado del gracioso / Liszt (Great Recordings of the Century)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dinu Lipatti was perhaps the greatest pianist of the modern age. Such hyperbole is usually suspect in a review, and no doubt many will argue with it, but I find the recorded evidence to support the claim. Rubenstein may have been brasher, Horowitz splashier, Serkin more intellectual, Giesking more delicate, but Lipatti combines more of the virtues of a great pianist into a complete whole than any other giant of the century.

This recording is a case in point. Playing the music of composers as diverse as Chopin, Lizst, Ravel and Enescu, Lipatti shows many sides of his musical personality. The Chopin Sonata is by far the best recording of this work I have ever heard. The Sonata is phenomenally difficult, and yet, listening to Lipatti's version you are not aware of the difficulty. Lipatti tosses off the most fiendish run as if it were Chopsticks...and you are left to marvel at the sheer beauty of Chopin's creation. The third movement especially is breathtaking. This is an extremely difficult movement to pull off well. It hangs together by a line that tends to be hidden in the music, but Lipatti finds this line. The performance has a spirit and poetry that I've never heard equalled.

The other major work on this disc is the Enescu 3rd Piano Sonata. Enescu has recently undergone something of a renaissance, with more of his non-Romanian Rhapsody No. 2 works appearing on disc and in concert. But Lipatti was an early champion of his godfather's music. The Third Sonata is a delicate, almost neo-Baroque work, with a heavy debt to Debussy. Lipatti makes it sing lyrically, even in it's most virtuoso passages. His filigree is delicate and his sense for the inner poetry behind the music is unequalled.

The "filler" on this disc includes a lovely version of the Liszt Sonnet #104 of Petrarch, a duet reading of Brahms' Waltzes with Nadia Boulanger on second piano, and a stunning recording of the Ravel Alborada de gracioso. In all these works, Lipatti's touch is meltingly delicate, his virtuosity unmatched...and yet the spirit of the work is paramount. I cannot say enough about this wonderful pianist or this stunning record except, go get it now!.

This is far and away the best performance of the Chopin (one of my favorite pieces) I've heard, quite possibly one of the best interpretations of anything... There's a fine line between not interpreting music and distorting it, and most classical and romantic artists, respectively, fall into one of these two categories. A handful of the old "classical" pianists, especially Gilels and Lipatti, managed to tread this line with a sublimely restrained kind of interpretation which still somehow does more for the rhetorical sense of the music. Though he is technically more subtle, the potency with which he delivers the music reminds me of Furtwangler. I'm not the biggest fan of the Brahms waltzes but all the other stuff on the disk is fantastic.

These recordings date from 1937-47, Lipatti died in 1950. So they are of that era: somewhat boxy, muddy, and periodically oversaturated mono.

So if you were expecting modern quality you will be somewhat disappointed, but you can still hear everything quite well, and certainly evaluate the performances. Just imagine you're listening on one of those ancient phonographs with the big horn connected to the needle, and you will be thrilled.

As for the performances, I think everyone else has done a good job of describing them...they are sensational, and it is a pity this man didn't live long enough to have an adequate record of his genius. What remains is certainly worth appreciating.

If it included the Bach B flat Partita and more Chopin (Nocturne Opus 27/2 and waltzes), this would be rank on a par with the Besancon Last Recital recording as the top Lipatti CDs to have and cherish. Even so, it's a must-have companion to the Besancon and the two CDs from Philips (ASIN: B00000DI2Z). You have an inebriating Chopin Sonata here which you should not miss by any chance. Could also use this CD to introduce Ravel in less than 6 minutes.

Of the postwar artists who died tragiclaly young (Kathleen Ferrier, William Kapell, Guido Cantelli), the very youngest was Dinu Lipatti, who succumbed to leukemia at 33 in 1950. In death he has become as romantic a figure as any Dumas herione, his memory all the more elusive because of his angelic temperament and very truncated dsicography. Lipatti was a musician's musician, his style being refined, precise, and aristocratic. EMI owns all his commerical recordings, so far as I know, which amount to no more than 5 or 6 CDs, and that includes dim radio broadcasts that were never commercially released.

You can buy the complete recordings in a bargain box set released by EMI in their "Icons" series, but this CD is a good place to start, also. I remember when I first heard Lipatti and was dismayed at the cramped, boxy sound of the recordings, and even though remastering has improved tings, there's not much improvement between one reissue and the next - the piano sounds dull and at times hard. Only exceptional charisma can overcome this physical obstacle, and Lipatti has it, evidenced by his mesmerizing reading of the Chopin Sonata no. 3. Kapell has an equally cramped version of this work, and both surpass any postwar reading I've ever heard, deepening the aura of tragedy around losing to such gifted artists. Kapell was just beginning to arrive at his mature style when he died in a plane crash approaching San Francisco after a tour in Australia; his early phase was strongly influenced by Horowitz,an influence he was just beginning to escape. Lipatti seems fully formed and free of any influence. He found his own graceful yet forceful style.

The essence of this style is found in the Liszt Petrach Sonnet no. 104, which requires a sense of spontaneity and reined-in passion. Liszt comes very close to Chopin here, so the fit is natural for Lipatti; the only other Lisztian with his gifts that comes to mind is the obscure Russian master, Grigory Ginzburg. Ravel's flashy Alborado del gracioso is played with dazzling fierceness and mystery. The remainder of the CD was of less interest to me - 8 min. of Brahms waltzes for two pianos performed with Nadia Boulanger (this dates from 1937, a decade earlier than the rest), and enescu's Sonata no. 3, a tribute to Lipatti's great Rumanian forebear and godfather.

It doesn't matter that the program is so short, given the rarity of Lipatti's recordings and how precious each one is. amazon already contains enough praise for him; I just thought to add another as a reminder to myself of this artist's uniqueness.

Lipatti's interpretation stands out among all Chopin players and would deserve top rating. Unfortunately old recordings like this cannot be perfectly reproduced (as I suspect), a loss indeed.

Listen to his Ravel and Brams and Chopin, you will be totally intoxcated. You can't expect a better pianist. Horowitz is slightly inferior. Rubinstein existed only to reflect how great Lipatti is.G.Gould makes you feel the same sometimes but he makes you uneasy most of the time.

Just like what's on the back flip of the EMI record: God lent the world HIS chosen instrument, whom we called "Lipatti", for too brief a space.

Lipatti was a great artist, especially when he played great music. This is great music.