Dinu Lipatti: A 70th Anniversary Anthology 'Recital'

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In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Dinu Lipatti's death on December 2, 1950, a collection of commercial and unofficial recordings arranged in a recital format.

(for more detail than the text here, check the feature on my website: thepianofiles.com/dinu-lipatti...-70-years-later )

Lipatti often played recitals featuring an array of works from Baroque to 20th century, in chronological sequence, sometimes centred around one main work. The collection here features some of the works he most regularly programmed, in similar groupings: he often paired these two Bach chorales in this order, as well as the first of the two Scarlatti Sonatas presented here (unfortunately a recording of the third usually grouped with these has not been salvaged). One of the central works he often played in these recitals was Chopin's Third Sonata, which is featured here, grouped with other solo Chopin works as he often did. (Among the other large-scale works that often figured in his recitals was Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, Schumann's Etudes symphoniques, and Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin.)

He also regularly put together two or three Brahms solo works - I've included four as none of these are part of Lipatti's studio discography and because these particular performances reveal so much of his interpretative genius. It is also unfortunate that we do not have the two works that he most often paired with Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso - Debussy's La soirée dans Grenade and Falla's Ritual Fire Dance - but ending with this most vivacious recording of the pianist seemed a fitting end to this tribute recital.

Bach-Busoni: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland

Bach-Hess: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring

Scarlatti: Three Sonatas:

G Major K.9

G Minor K.450

D Minor K.14

Chopin:

Sonata No.3 in B Minor Op.58

Waltz No.2 in A-Flat Major Op.34 No.1

Two Etudes: Op.25 No.5 and Op.10 No.5

Liszt:

Two Etudes: La Leggierezza and Gnomernreigen

Brahms:

Intermezzo in E-Flat Major (abbr.) Op.117 No.1

Intermezzo in A Minor (abbr.) Op.116 No.2

Intermezzo in C Major Op.119 No.3

Capriccio in D Minor Op.116 No.7

Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso

The recordings featured:

Bach chorales taken from Opus Kura’s wonderful release of these recordings: prestomusic.com/classical/prod...eneva-july-1950

Scarlatti G minor and G major Sonatas among recent discoveries released on Marston Records: marstonrecords.com/products/landmarks1

Scarlatti D Minor Sonata, Chopin Sonata, and Chopin Waltz from APR’s new release of Lipatti’s Abbey Road recordings: prestomusic.com/classical/prod...dings-1947-1948

Chopin Etudes transferred by Werner Unger on our 2000 ‘Cornerstones’ tribute CD: prestomusic.com/classical/prod...3–les-inedits

Two Liszt Etudes from my co-produced set Les Inedits on Unger’s archiphon label, now out of print – Gnomenreigen here featured from new source material. prestomusic.com/classical/prod...3–les-inedits

First two Brahms Intermezzi from 1995 and 2000 releases I co-produced with Unger on his archiphon label, now only available digitally: prestomusic.com/classical/prod...tones-1936-1950

Second two Brahms works on Marston Records’ Landmarks of Recorded Pianism Vol.1: marstonrecords.com/products/landmarks1

Ravel’s Alborada from APR’s new set of Lipatti’s Abbey Road recordings: prestomusic.com/classical/prod...dings-1947-1948