Customer Reviews

Great Recordings Of The Century - Dinu Lipatti

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
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The Bach is as modern as in any of today's recordings, despite the age of this one; Lipatti puts as much thought into his interpretation as Gould, but with a result more pleasing to the ear. The Scarlatti is equal in all respects to Horowitz's phenomenal recording, with beautiful colour and impeccable technique at the service of the interpretation. The Mozart leaves one breathless; Lipatti plays each movement in one breath, without respite, with unequalled intensity. Yet the music sounds lyrical, more so than a piano seems capable of. Finally, the Schubert sings like a Lied; One has to go back to Fischer for such beauty. No serious music listener should be without this record.

Lipatti's conception of Bach's music is of the very highest level, and his play dangerously approaches perfection. I don't agree with the review below that his Besançon live recording is superior to this one. Although Lipatti's performances were truly spectacular, and definitely belong to the best recordings available, he usually took a faster tempo than in his "studio" recordings. His play was utterly natural and I think even in Bach he is superior to Gould. His Scarlatti sonatas are on a par with Horowitz, although Horowitz recorded many more. Mozart's sonata shows less nuance than Perahia's although I strongly suspect that the microphone was much too close to the piano, because Lipatti was a master of nuance. Lipatti did so little, but he did so well...

Dinu Lipatti was one of several tragic musical geniuses from the post-World War II period who died far too young. (Others included the pianist William Kapell, the contralto Kathleen Ferrier and the violinist Ginette Neveu.) Lipatti died at about the same age as Mozart and Schubert, and his recordings of those composers on this disc demonstrate that his loss was almost as great a catastrophe for the art of music as theirs. Lipatti's pianism "flowed like oil," to borrow one of Mozart's favorite phrases; it was always elegant but never mannered, always reasonable but never dull, intensely spiritual but never in a grandstanding way. I remember reading an interview with Seiji Ozawa in which he said that Lipatti's recording of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" was the only disc he would recommend to anyone who wanted to get acquainted with classical music; it was so beautiful and so warmly human, Ozawa said, that anyone who heard it would be hooked forever. Ozawa was absolutely right, and that recording is on this disc. Buy it.

This is simply the best piano recording I have ever heard, and I heard quite a few since I am a collector of piano CDs since many years.

You cannot surpass the level of beauty and perfection that Lipatti has reached in this recording, and I don't think anybody ever will. This is piano playing from heaven. I have heard mentions of pianists like Gould, Perahia or Horowitz, but even such giants could't compare to the miracle we hear in this recording. I do not like to knock such legends, but it seems like their limits and weaknesses suddenly appear clear when we play them next to Lipattti. It is that good. A unique experience. In my opinion this is the definitive piano recording.

To define the art of Lipatti means describe the essence of the poetry made pianism. The flowness of his cantabile sounds so natural , that it let you surprised. The wonderful hands of this rumanian artist and the commitment spiritual he owned make of him a lone star in the universe of the supreme masters of the keyboard.
Think in his Bach for instance . Elegance , rapture and majesty, and loaded with deep musicality .
His Chopin is unique in the story he never gives a reading romantic in Chopin , but he carries to Frederick to a highest level . The waltzes and The third Sonata op. 58 haven't equal performers.
His Schubert sounds so different of the other pianists. You may consider Schnabel and Fisher as the only two glorious exceptions . You listen his Schubert and inmediatly Lipatti links you with the soul of the composer , being he just a invisible vehicle between us and the composer.
His Mozart is deeply aristocrathic and plenty of original ideas.
The early death of Lipatti in 1950 (33) let the world in such state of orphaness, that it has never filled with another keyboard player.
His place keeps still without substitute!

Dinu Lipatti's interpretation of these Bach partitas carries such poetry and fluid grace - never showy or rushed - that these stand among some of the finest recordings out there. He really brings out the ebb and flow of the music so that it seems to breathe with the life he gives them. The other Bach pieces, including the Cantata, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, are equally captivating as is his interpretation of Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 8.

Included also on the CD are two Scarlatti pieces, played with real aristocratic poise and dignity and two of Schubert's Impromptus (899) from a live performance. The third Impromptu is absolutely magical.

Dinu Lipatti was a rare and special talent whose small recording output was cut tragically short in 1950 when he was only in his early 30s. These recordings are from the 40s and as such are of a certain sound quality (you can hear the needle go round the record with the Scarlatti) - but the sheer elegance of his playing breaks through any kind of mono barrier. As an aside, his interpretation of Chopin's Walzes comes extremely highly recommended and is widely considered as among the very best available.

This is piano playing at its very finest.

You can only imagine how GREAT would it be if only had Dinu Lipatti lived another thirty-something years!! He could be the greatest Pianist of all time.

Amazingly technical skills aside, his way of reaching the very essence and spirit of Bach, Mozart and Schubert as recorded on this album is yet to be surpassed. His tragic early death left a huge void behind yet to be filled by another ‘God’s chosen instrument’, and world still hasn’t found one. Today, with many new recordings and re-issues of old recordings keep coming out, you can get excellent renditions of those pieces of music from other musicians. But, Dinu Lipatti’s approach of these composers is simply sublime, far beyond your usual experiences of piano-playing… Karajan’s expression of Dinu Lipatti’s playing was, "no longer the sound of the piano, but music in its purest form." Musical world has seen many great musicians, Dinu Lipatti was one of the rare ones. He’s got a touch of sublimity.

If you like the inspirational music magnificently represented by an inspiring soul, this is the one to get and to go along with you. In fact, Lipatti had left only a few commercial recordings and they are all great, (with vary quality of sound recordings, though.)

A less than satisfying transfer of probably the greatest pianist of the century.
Sound quality is rough and noisy. Lipatti was the epitome of style and form, translating beautiful music.

Superb artistry. In Lipatti's playing, you will hear much in familiar music that you had not heard before.

These are wonderful performances that are unfortunately marred by the dreaded "metallic-treble" disease. In other words, the beautiful lines of the upper register are practically unlistenable and irritatingly sharp and brittle. It's the worst engineering offense for vintage, analog piano recordings, and I have to turn down the sharp highs with the equalizer. EMI remastering is generally good, but not here. When Lipatti's playing of the Bach chorale preludes are hard to listen to because of the brittle highs, there's something wrong - the sharpness detracts noticeably from the overall warmth of the performances and causes listener fatigue. Have a good treble control handy and it'll help but may not entirely solve the problem. I'm disappointed to have to play this marvelous music sparingly because of the bad engineering, and unless I got a lousy download, I hope EMI sees this and tries again. They can do it. This remastering situation is not evident on Lipatti's Besancon Piano Recital. 5 stars for the performances; TWO stars for the poor engineering.