Customer Reviews

Partita 1/Son In A Min/Two Son

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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...

A decent album all around, but with some qualifications. Although Lipatti here plays the Bach Partita with a great deal of warmth, he doesn't quite possess Glenn Gould's contrapuntal clarity or interpretive imagination. The Scarlatti sonatas are lively but without the same nuance that Vladimir Horowitz imparts. Even Gould's limited Scarlatti recordings are a bit more compelling. The Mozart sonata K. 310 sounds a bit rushed; a better alternative would be Murray Perahia's recording of the same piece on Sony.

If you're still looking for a Lipatti sampler, a much better album would be the live recording from his last concert in Besancon, France, made shortly before his death. It offers a more relaxed and expansive performance of the Bach Partita, along with the same Mozart piece, same Schubert pieces, and about a dozen Chopin Waltzes to boot.

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.