GRIEG. Piano Concerto. SCHUMANN. Piano Cto. Dinu Lipatti, Ph

How many music-lovers aged under 50 have even heard of Lipatti, I wonder. He was Rumanian and lived from 1917 to 1950, continuing to give recitals when obviously at death's door from a combination of leukaemia and rheumatoid arthritis. It's a genuine tragic-romantic story but it needs no sentimentalising because this contemporary of Richter and Michelangeli easily stands comparison with either of them. It would be a rough but reasonable generalisation to say that he is the same kind of player as they are -- super-virtuoso but not in the 'exhibitionist' (said with no disrespect) tradition represented by Horowitz and continued by Cziffra, another contemporary. Lipatti was nearly as fastidious and perfectionistic as Michelangeli himself, and I urge any lover of great playing who does not know these performances or this performer to get hold of these accounts of the Grieg and Schumann at this modest price, however many others they already have. The Grieg is big, majestic and forceful, not unlike Michelangeli's version in a sense. For all it amounts to, the Grieg concerto has been luckier than it deserves in the interpreters it has found. Schumann's is another matter, a lovely and most loveable romantic masterpiece. In this Lipatti resembles nobody! The intermezzo has the beautiful lyric tenderness and smoothness that Lipatti was famous for, the central andante in the first movement is as full of affection and Innigkeit as I have ever heard, but the thing that makes the real impact in both the outer movements is the tremendous pace Lipatti takes them at. If that sounds wrong to you, all I can say is hear it for yourself. It's hard to put the effect into words, because no other version known to me is really similar and I doubt if there is a similar version anywhere. The opening chordal flourish will lift you out of your chair, the upward-rushing crescendo at the end of the exposition is stupendous (is this really the Schumann concerto we're talking about? Yes, and I bet Schumann would have loved it), and the finale, taken very fast, is a tumbling glory of great fingerwork, superb diablerie and enormous sensitivity at the same time, although I think I detect a creeping increase in tempo. Michelangeli is more 'mainstream', definitely slowish and I would say one for collectors rather than for anyone looking for a safe version. The Richter performance I have is the nearest to Lipatti's in overall approach, but the recorded quality is not all it might be. My general recommendation for a version that is both 'standard' in its approach yet full of personality and individual touches is by Serkin, but it may not be currently available. I also have a special affection for Backhaus's bucolic reading, though it may be even harder to locate by now. My own special favourite, and also in the Grieg, is by Cherkassky, cool and reflective, exquisite in the central andante of the first movement and with wonderful crystalline fingerwork, but also difficult to find these days. But when all is said and done, look at the price of this Lipatti disc. Treat yourself.

Don't get this CD! The reason is that the exact same recording of the Grieg Concereto is available on an EMI References CD that couples it with Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 (Otto Ackermann/Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich). Furthermore, the very same Schumann Concerto is available on an EMI "Great Recordings of the Century" disc that also features Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto (Karajan/Lucerne Festival Orchestra). Lipatti is so good, and his recordings so scarce, that anyone interested in him should not settle on purchasing just two concertos when for a little more money they can get four. I am surprised that Dutton released this, they are usually so good about licensing and issuing unique historical recordings. I hope Dutton doesn't turn into another Classica D'Oro -- with them you have to really pay attention in order not to buy redundant product!

One of the most accented features of Schumann `s Piano Concerto Op. 54 to remark, is its fascinating dynamic character, its poetic imagery but above all its showy mystery. It `s one of the best known pieces of this genre, but what it really engages me its kaleidoscopic character. Filled of Romantic lineage, but also an obsessive and voluptuous charm. You can notice there are not long musical phrases (as Tchaikovsky' s First or Chopin's First, for instance). Its filled of brief but scented arpeggios that denote anguish, spring's thirst, love, passion, visible Pantheist character and an accented bucolic character.

So, that's precisely the reason why this is a so difficult work to play. That crowd of encountered feelings and enraptured visions requires from the soloist a profound understanding of the score. You must search beneath the score and turn continuously your approach. If you just focus around the simple fact this another Romantic Concerto which must sound hyper romantic; sorry you made a terrible mistake, because that's is just one of the multiple aspects that conform this expressive Concerto.

Dinu Lipatti has always been one of the most successful pianists who really felt , knew and understood the overall sense of this Op. And given the fact of having so many times played by almost most of pianists, the number of successful version hardly surmounts the dozen.

This is certainly, one of them. And the rest of the dozen to my mind in strict order would be: Ivan Moravec and Vaclav Neumann (my first choice, by far), Lipatti, Sviatoslav Richter, Samson Francois, Wilhelm Kempff, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Serkin, Walter Giesking, Artur Rubinstein, Van Cliburn, Eugene Istomin and Guiomar Novaes.

In what Grieg concerns one of thge most pyramidal achievements that conform with the Rubinstein version with the Dallas Symphony and Dorati, a magnificent peformance of Radu Lupu, Walter Gieseking and Guiomar Novaes the most pyramidal recordings ever made.