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Constantin " Dinu" Lipatti (; 2 December 1950) was a Romanian Classical music pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from effects related to Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy. He composed few works, all of which demonstrated a strong influence from Hungarian composer Béla Bartok.
A relentless perfectionist, Lipatti often prepared many years for major performances, such as four years for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and three for Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. He left a small number of recordings, and they are well-regarded, particularly that of Alborada del gracioso from Maurice Ravel's Miroirs suite. In his short lifetime he was highly acclaimed by many musical figures of the 20th century, namely Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, and Francis Poulenc.
He studied at the Gheorghe Lazăr High School, while studying piano and composition with Mihail Jora for three years. He then attended the Bucharest Conservatoire, studying under Florica Musicescu, who also taught him privately. In June 1930, the best pupils at the Conservatoire gave a concert at the Bucharest Opera, and the 13-year-old Lipatti received a huge ovation for his performance of the Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor. In 1932 he won prizes for his compositions: a Piano Sonatina, and a Sonatina for Violin and Piano. That year he also won a Grand Prize for his symphonic suite Les Tziganes.
Lipatti's career was interrupted by World War II. Although he gave concerts across the Nazi Germany-occupied territories, as the war grew closer he fled his native Romania in September 1943 with his companion and fellow pianist, Madeleine Cantacuzene. With the aid of Edwin Fischer he emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland, where he accepted a position as professor of piano at the Geneva Conservatory. His pupils at the conservatory included Charles Reiner and Béla Síki.
It was while teaching at the Geneva Conservatory in the 1940s that the first signs of Lipatti's illness emerged. At first, doctors were baffled, and in 1947 he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He and Madeleine married in 1948 as Lipatti's health continued to decline. As a result, his public performances became considerably less frequent after the war. His energy level was improved for a time by then experimental injections of cortisone and his collaboration with record producer Walter Legge between 1947 and 1950 resulted in the majority of the recordings of Lipatti's playing.
Lipatti never recorded any of Beethoven's music. It is a common misconception, however, that Lipatti did not perform Beethoven's music until late in his career. The Waldstein Sonata had been a feature of Lipatti's repertoire since 1935. He also performed the Emperor Concerto in Bucharest twice during the 1940–41 season, and even stood ready to record it for EMI in 1949. An internal memo from Lipatti's recording producer Walter Legge, dated 23 February 1948, states that "Lipatti had his heart set on doing a Beethoven Concerto in 1949" and nominates the Emperor Concerto, given that Lipatti had already performed it.
A recording of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, originally released under Lipatti's name, and said to have been a recording of a live performance in Switzerland in May 1948, proved not to be his contribution at all. In 1981, it emerged that the soloist on this recording was in fact a Poland pianist (and a fellow Alfred Cortot pupil), Halina Czerny-Stefańska, the joint winner of the 4th International Chopin Piano Competition, playing with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Václav Smetáček. However, later on, an authentic recording by Lipatti of the Chopin Concerto was found.
Harold C. Schonberg wrote in 1953 "Lipatti, a master of the keyboard, would have developed into one of the supreme artists of this era. He was a pianist of the Rachmaninoff order, blessed with an enormous technique and a strong rhythmic sense."
Career
He entered the 1933 Vienna International Piano Competition and finished second to Polish pianist Bolesław Kon, some say controversially. Alfred Cortot, who thought Lipatti should have won, resigned from the jury in protest.Jeremy Siepmann, Liner notes for Chopin: 14 Valses, etc, EMI Cat. D114628, 1980 Lipatti subsequently studied in Paris under Cortot, Nadia Boulanger (with whom he recorded some of Johannes Brahms's Waltzes Op. 39), Paul Dukas (composition) and Charles Munch (conducting). At eighteen, Lipatti gave his recital debut in Paris at the École Normale. On 17 May 1935, three days before the concert, his friend and teacher, Paul Dukas, died and in his memory Lipatti opened his program with J. S. Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring in the transcription by Myra Hess, the first piece he publicly performed as an adult pianist.
Later years and death
Lipatti gave his final recital, also recorded, on 16 September 1950 at the Besançon Festival in France. Despite severe illness and a high fever, he gave superb performances of Bach's Partita No. 1 in B-flat major, Mozart's A minor Sonata, K. 310, Franz Schubert's G-flat major and E-flat major Impromptus, Op. 90, and thirteen of the fourteen Chopin Waltzes which he played in his own integral order. Coming to the last one, No. 2 in A-flat, he found he was too exhausted to play it and he offered instead Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, the piece with which he had begun his professional career only fifteen years before. He died less than 3 months later in Geneva aged 33, from a burst abscess on his one lung. Lipatti is buried at the cemetery of Chêne-Bourg next to his wife Madeleine (1908–1982), a noted piano teacher.
Repertoire
Lipatti's piano playing is widely appreciated for the absolute purity of his interpretations, at the service of which he used a masterful pianistic technique. Lipatti is particularly noted for his interpretations of Chopin, Mozart and Bach, and he also made recordings of Maurice Ravel's Miroirs, Franz Liszt, George Enescu, and the Schumann and Grieg piano concertos. His recording of Chopin's Waltzes has remained in print since its release and has long been a favorite of many classical music-lovers.
Legacy
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to classical music interpretation and composition he was posthumously elected in 1997 as a member of the Romanian Academy. In 2005, The Mountain Goats released a song in his honor, titled "Dinu Lipatti's Bones". The Mountain Goats: The Sunset Tree at Discogs.com In 2017 Lipatti admirer Orlando Murrin discovered the only known film footage of Lipatti, at a Lucerne garden party in 1947 with Paul Hindemith and other musicians, which was screened at London's Cadogan Hall that November.
Lupatti's home at Bulevardul Lascăr Catargiu 10 is part of the Municipal Museum of Bucharest. The municipality named it Casa Artelor Dinu Lipatti in 2017 with a mandate as a cultural center, but later became part of the Municipal Museum under the name Casa Memorială Dinu Lipatti.
Compositions
In addition to his pianistic accomplishments, Lipatti was a composer, who wrote in a neoclassical style with French and Romanian influences. His works include:
Notable recordings
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Further reading
(1996). 9781871082586, Kahn & Averill. ISBN 9781871082586
External links
Categories: 1917 Births, 1950 Deaths, Musicians From Bucharest, Child Classical Musicians, Gheorghe Lazăr National College Alumni, National University Of Music Bucharest Alumni, 20th-century Romanian Classical Pianists, 20th-century Romanian Composers, Romanian Classical Pianists, Romanian Defectors, Romanian Expatriates In Switzerland, Academic Staff Of The Conservatoire De Musique De Genève, Deaths From Cancer In Switzerland, Deaths From Lymphoma, Members Of The Romanian Academy Elected Posthumously
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