The Besancon Piano Recital - Album

Dinu Lipatti March 19 1917 Bucharest – December 2 1950 Geneva Was A Romanian Classical Pianist And Composer Whose Career Was Tragically Cut Short By His Death From Hodgkin's Disease At Age 33. Despite His Short Career And A Relatively Small Recorded Legacy Lipatti Is Considered As One Of The Finest Pianists Of The 20th Century. Lipatti Was Born In Bucharest Into A Musical Family His Father Was A Violinist His Mother A Pianist And His Godfather Was The Violinist And Composer George Enescu. He Studied At The Gheorghe Lazăr High School And Finished Second At The 1934 Vienna International Piano Competition Which Led To Alfred Cortot Who Thought He Should Have Won Resigning From The Jury In Protest. Lipatti Subsequently Studied In Paris Under Cortot Nadia Boulanger With Whom He Recorded Some Of Johannes Brahms Waltzes Op. 39 Paul Dukas Composition And Charles Münch Conducting . Lipatti's Career Was Interrupted By World War II. Although He Continued To Give Concerts Throughout Europe Including Nazi-Occupied Territories He Eventually Fled His Native Romania In 1943 And Settled With His Wife In Geneva Switzerland Where He Accepted The Position As Piano Professor At The Conservatory. It Was At This Time That The First Signs Of His Illness Emerged. At First Doctors Were Baffled But In 1947 He Was Diagnosed With Hodgkin's Disease. As A Result His Concertizing Receded Considerably After The War. Lipatti Gave His Final Recital Which Was Recorded On 16 September 1950 In Besançon. Despite Severe Illness He Gave Unmatched Performances Of Bach’s B Flat Major Partita Mozart’s A Minor Sonata Schubert's G Flat Major And E Flat Major Impromptus And Thirteen Of Chopin's 14 Waltzes. He Excluded No. 2 Which He Was Too Exhausted To Play He Offered Instead Myra Hess’s Transcription Of Bach’s Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring. He Died Less Than 3 Months Later. Lipatti Is Buried At The Cemetery Of Chêne-Bourg Next To His Wife Madeleine A Noted Piano Teacher. read less