I often think how lucky future generations will be when they
delve into the past. There is, I suspect, almost no area of
human activity that has not been catalogued on film, in books,
on DVDs, videos, the internet and CDs. Provided all these resources
stay intact and future generations have the technologies to
access the information then they will be much luckier than historians
from the past who had to work much harder to unlock the secrets
of the past. In musical terms what a wealth of material they
will have to dive into! I have just read in BBC Music Magazine
that work has been done on original matrices to present on CD
recordings made by Grieg in Paris in 1903! Aren’t we lucky!
This is by way of an introduction to this disc of the last ever
recital by one of the all-time greats of the piano. The recital
has been issued before on LP and CD but never as cleanly and
crisply as on this one. Mark Obert-Thorn, that genius in the
field of audio restoration, has done an incredible job.
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) was a phenomenon that occurs very rarely.
He was such a perfectionist that his recorded legacy barely
fills five CDs. He would not, for instance record Beethoven,
saying he would require four years practice before he would
commit the ‘Emperor’ concerto to disc! He confined his playing
to a small number of composers and, together with Schumann,
rarely played any other than those represented on this disc:
Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Chopin. However, what truly sublime
playing we get to hear due to his fastidiousness. It is, therefore,
small wonder that he has reached cult status along with pianists
like Glenn Gould and a few others. Beginning his piano studies
at the age of 8 he won second prize at the Vienna International
Piano Competition at the age of 17. The fact that he was not
awarded first prize caused jury member Alfred Cortot (no less)
to resign in protest and to invite the young Lipatti to study
with him in Paris. There he was also fortunate to have lessons
in composition from Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger. The cruel
hand of fate struck at the early age of 26 in 1943 when he was
diagnosed with a form of leukaemia that would claim his life
only seven years later. Although he did tour Europe he had to
cancel planned visits to the USA and Australia and also a planned
recording session in London for Columbia. The equipment was
sent to Geneva where between 3 and 12 July 1950 he made some
of his most famous recordings – a kind of last testament to
his genius. The final track is from this session as he was too
ill to include it in his last ever recital which occupies all
the other tracks on this disc. At that recital he was so weak
that he had to be helped to the piano and, against his doctors’
advice gave the performance here recorded. He died aged 33 less
than three months later. When you think of the state of physical
exhaustion and hopelessness he was afflicted with it is truly
remarkable to hear this disc. There is no hint of any of this
in his playing which is magisterial, exhibiting power and a
love for the music that inhabits every note. Just listen to
the presto of Mozart’s Sonata No.8 or Schubert’s Impromptu No.3
for example. It all makes for very emotional listening coupled
with astonishment at what a true genius can achieve with iron
determination against such overwhelming odds. Lipatti was like
a comet lighting up the musical sky and one that comes around
very infrequently but what glory there is when we are privileged
to be witness to it! This is a disc to cherish and to relish
at every playing.
Steve Arloff
Track-listing
Applause and arpeggios [0:33]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Partita No.1 in B flat minor, BWV 825 [17:20]
Applause and arpeggios [0:26]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756-1791)
Sonata No.8 in A minor, K.310
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Impromptus, Op.90, D.899 [14:10]
No.3 in G Flat [5:06]
. No.2 in E Flat [5:56]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Waltzes: No.5 in A Flat, Op.42 ‘Two-Four Waltz’ [3:29]
No.6 in D Flat Op.64 No.1 ‘Minute Waltz’ [1:37]
No.9 in A Flat, Op.69 No.1 [3:13]
No.7 in C Sharp Minor, Op.64 No.2 [1:53]
No.11 in G Flat, Op.70 No.1 [1:24]
No.10 in B Minor, Op.69 No.2 [3:00]
No.14 In E Minor, Op.posth. [2:10]
No.3 in A Minor, Op.34 No.2 ‘Valse brillante’ [3:26]
No.4 in F, Op.34 No.3 ‘Valse brillante’ [1:57]
No.12 in F Minor, Op.70 No.2 [1:20]
No.13 in D Flat, Op.70 No.3 [1:51]
No.8 in A Flat, Op.64 No.3 [2:39]
No.1 in E Flat, Op.18 ‘Grande valse brillante’ [4:10]
No.2 in A flat major, Op.34 No.1 [4:42]
Dinu Lipatti (piano)
