DINU LIPATTI 1917-1950

Monday, November 22, 1999

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For some of us, there will always be pianists who we regard as in some sense among the immortals. Dinu Lipatti is one of these for me. He was a tragic figure, an aristocrat in all the best senses, of the old school. These days he is little known, but thankfully enough, many of his incredible performances survive out there on CD's. The most astounding thing about a Lipatti performance is that he makes everything sound as though his conception, his interpretation, his performance just couldn't be surpassed. His pianism is closest to that of Rachmaninoff in terms of his ability to exert complete control over the piano as he plays it. But unlike the realized Rachmaninoff we have available to us, the recordings show that Lipatti was able to play some passages so quietly and yet so clearly that he was able almost to get into the private soul of things, especially is this true of his performances of Chopin and Schubert, but even his Bach prefigures what we heard later from Glenn Gould, another legendary but quite different sort of pianist. Lipatti's astounding performance of the Chopin Barcarolle Op. 60 may not have its equal. This piece requires the ability to control great dynamics to produce some lighthearted romantic feelings. Lipatti's approach is straightforward; he allows the music to evoke its own level of the romantic without extra emphasis form him. His Chopin is reserved and not schmaltzy which might be a relief to those who have not yet warmed to Chopin. He plays as if the spirit of the music itself was just pouring through him with little added from himself. This is sort of an ideal for some of us, a kind of pianism we ourselves aspire to. It requires a fearlessness and a detachment, a supreme conquest of the instrument, of the moment. We may be grateful that a number of these moments have been preserved for us. If you're a serious pianist or want to enjoy it, you might as well make it a point to get all the Dinu Lipatti performances you can get your hands on. They just don't make em like this much anymore. They all get my five star rating. Here are a list of his recordings on EMI Classics. If anyone knows of any others, please let me know and I'll update this page. Oh by the way, since stereo wasn't invented until after 1950, ALL of these recordings are in mono but it really doesn't matter, you wont be missing anything important.