Search - Grieg, Chopin, Lipatti :: Piano Concertos

A master musician who passed too young

Anso | Las Vegas | 05/12/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Dinu Lipatti was on his way to becoming one of the finest pianist of his generation. Unfortunately he died from leukemia when in his early thirties. The very brief career and subsequent limited discography is all that remains of this brilliant pianist. We are left with only one version of the Grieg piano concerto with the London Philharmonia. This perfomance as with the other on this disc is so passionate from the opening chords of the Grieg, I found myself incredibly drawn into this performance. There are other discs that combine the Grieg with Chopin or Schumann's piano concerto, but it is basically the same recording. Lipatti has such command of the piano, I really believe this is one of the definitve performances of the Grieg. But one problem makes this disc so hard to listen to.
This is a mono recording, abosultely horrible sound quality. I am not too sure if it could have been remastered into anything better, if it had been recorded in stereo, yes. But mono recordings are like listening to old AM radio from the seventies. You cannot hear the subtle nuances within the orchestra, in fact the whole orchestra sounds like it's playing in a cave. And Lipatti himself sounds like someone talking with their hand over their mouth, like a person sounds on a speakerphone. It's a problem that makes the recording very hard to listen too. I am not sorry I bought it, but I did buy the remastered version of Rubenstein's as well, sound quality much better. I have old recordings of Heifitz that were remastered from the fifties and you can tell the recording is that old, however you can still listen to them because they were remastered from stereo. But mono-- forget it. If you can get past that problem, and it's hard to do in this day and age when sound is so much more perfect and advanced than fifty years ago, then you can really love this recording. Otherwise find an old LP of this in a used record store and play it through the best EQ stereo you have, you won't be disappointed. I'm giving it 3 stars for the sound quality. The performance is first rate."

A billion carats gem of transcendental magnitude!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 09/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dinu Liaptti bequeathed to posterity invaluable musical treasures. This blazing version of Grieg' s Piano concerto makes to pale even the most daring pianist you may consider.



Lipatti covered of genuine transcendence and refulgent vigor a score so many times performed and so many times unknown in its own essence. Lipatti made a sidereal journey int o the core of this Op. extracting all the possible musical vein with radiant splendor, flaming phrasing and pantheist lyricism. The pantheist vision hovered and tinged the whole execution of refulgent expression, showing us the Norwegian fiords, the wildness of its forests, the nature` s biorhythm through a memorable phrasing that seemed to work out as a huge palette of vivid iridescence and portentous grandness, hence this soloist eliminated the romantic patina that may be result grateful to our ears but it minimizes the overall expression of the work, reducing its scopes. The achieved level is so distant respect the other soloists that it results unthinkable to dare with this mercurial performance.



His Chopin still remains among the best two available versions; the other two ar to my mind, the legendary version of Samson Francois.



So, when you acquire this golden CD you may proudly boast you have one of the twenty recordings of the XX Century!.

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