Dinu Lipatti - The Last Concert (1950, Besançon)

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Lipatti was so weak he could barely walk to the piano. But once he began playing, he became transformed. Despite his youth, Lipatti poured into his performance a unique wisdom, a distillation of everything he had lived for. He knew that this would have to stand as his final statement as an artist and that there could be no afterthoughts or retakes. As fine as were his studio readings, he achieved a genuine transcendence at Besançon. (...) This CD documents not only one of the greatest recitals ever recorded but an overwhelmingly emotional monument to the strength of the human spirit. In the words of Madeleine Lipatti, it serves to recall "an extinguished star whose fire still gives us light."

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J.S.Bach:
01. I Praeludium - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825
02. II Allemande - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825
03. III Courante - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825
04. IV Sarabande - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825
05. V Menuets 1 & 2 - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825
06. VI Gigue - Partita N°1 in B Flat, BWV 825

W.A.Mozart:
07. I Allegro Maestoso - Piano Sonata N°8 in A Minor, KV 310
08. II Andante cantable con espressione - Piano Sonata N°8 in A Minor, KV 310
09. II Presto - Piano Sonata N°8 in A Minor, KV 310

F.Schubert:
10. Impromptu in G Flat, D 899/3
11. Impromptu in E Flat, Op. 90/2, D 899/2

F.Chopin:
12. Waltz #5 in A Flat, Op. 42, "Two Four"
13. Waltz #6 in D Flat, Op. 64/1, "Minute"
14. Waltz #9 in A Flat, Op. 69/1, "L'Adieu"
15. Waltz #7 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 64/2
16. Waltz #11 in G Flat, Op. 70/1
17. Waltz #10 in B Minor, Op. 69/2
18. Waltz #14 in E Minor, CT 222
19. Waltz #3 in A Minor, Op. 34/2, "Grand Valse Brillante"
20. Waltz #4 in F, Op. 34/3, "Valse Brillante"
21. Waltz #12 in F Minor, Op. 70/2
22. Waltz #13 in D Flat, Op. 70/3
23. Waltz #8 in A Flat, Op. 64/3
24. Waltz #1 in E Flat, Op. 18, "Grande Valse Brillante"

Dinu Lipatti - piano
September 16, 1950 in Besançon, France

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(...) Despite the urgings of his doctors, Lipatti insisted upon one last recital. The program would be a handful of his favorite works and the setting would be the intimacy of the music festival to be held at Besançon, France. As his wife Madeleine recalled, this was the only way Lipatti could bear to take his leave of the world, since, "For him a concert was a pledge of his love to Music." Lipatti was so weak he could barely walk to the piano. But once he began playing, he became transformed. Despite his youth, Lipatti poured into his performance a unique wisdom, a distillation of everything he had lived for. He knew that this would have to stand as his final statement as an artist and that there could be no afterthoughts or retakes. As fine as were his studio readings, he achieved a genuine transcendence at Besançon. Perhaps the greatest tribute to Lipatti is that listeners can easily forget the poignant circumstances of this concert. The playing is nearly note-perfect, each piece is brilliantly conceived, and every phrase is alive with inflection, deeply expressive but under perfect emotional control. The only hint of trouble, and a very subtle one at that, is that Lipatti played only thirteen of Chopin's set of fourteen waltzes; realizing that he lacked the strength, he did not even attempt the last one but instead ended the concert and his artistic life with a short and soft Bach chorale, the final prayer of a consummate musician. The CD sound is much brighter and more immediate, but seems slightly inappropriate to the occasion; the diaphanous sonics of the LPs were hauntingly compelling,as if to provide a suitably discrete distance between the listener and the artist who, under these circumstances, seemed entitled to a degree of privacy within which to confront and overcome his stifling demons. In an apparent effort to avoid breaking the sustained mood, the CD chops off the applause that followed each piece on the LPs, resulting in an abrupt release of each final note rather than the natural decay of the concert hall. Also edited out is a poignant moment: before beginning the Bach Partita, Lipatti "tested" the piano with an ascending scale, as pianists often do before a recital, but his fingers collapsed on the fourth note. Rather than a mere embarrassment, this flaw helps to explain the weakness of the attack of the opening phrases of the Partita. It also throws the perfection of the remainder of the recital into a breathtaking relief, and serves as a reminder of the magnitude of the will power which Lipatti mustered to conquer his severe physical problems. (...) (Peter Gutman)

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