Lipatti: Last Recital (Besançon, 1950) - French Columbia FCX 698-699 (2LP box)

$

185

redgarnett Store ITEM DESCRIPTION:

This beautiful and rare 2LP box set from French Columbia (FCX 698-699, French pressing, blue/silver label, mono, booklet included, cloth box) features Dinu Lipatti's famed last recital, given on 16 September (at 5:00 pm) 1950 at the Salle du Parlement during the Third International Festival at Besançon. Lipatti played a Gaveau piano on this occasion.

Included in "Son Dernier Récital" were the following works:

Bach: Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major BWV 825

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor K. 310

Schubert: Impromptus No. 2 in E-flat Major and No. 3 in G-flat Major, from D. 899

Chopin: 14 Waltzes

Included is a handsome heavy paper, 8-page booklet that includes a heartfelt tribute to the pianist by his wife Madeleine Lipatti, an extended an eloquent appreciation of his artistry by Claude Rostand, and three striking photographs of Lipatti from the 1950 Besacon Festival, all taken by Roger Hauert.

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Wrote critic Joan Chissell in the December 1994 issue of The Gramophone upon EMI's CD release of this recital in its Références series:

"Apart from the two Schubert Impromptus, the programme of Lipatti's last recital consisted of works he'd recorded only some ten weeks earlier for EMI, in a Geneva studio, while enjoying a miraculous cortisone-wrought new lease of life. However, when honouring this Besancon Festival engagement on September 16th, 1950, very much against the advice of his doctors, leukaemia had once more gained the upper hand. Less than three months later he was dead, still only 33.

"As those of us who have long cherished the original LPs already know, the only evidence of weakness was the omission of the last of the concluding Chopin Waltzes (in his own favoured sequence, that in A flat, Op. 34 No. 2). For the rest, the recital stands as ''one of the great musical and human statements, a testimony to his [Lipatti's] transcendental powers, an almost frightening assertion of mind over matter'' as BM puts it in his sympathetic introductory note. Yet again I marvelled at the clarity of articulation and part-playing in the Bach Partita, at once so attentive to craftsmanly cunning yet so arrestingly unpedagogic and alive. For Mozart he finds a wonderfully translucent sound-world, rich in subtleties of colouring—not least in the slow movement's laden song. And as in the two Schubert Impromptus, the musical message is all the more affecting for its totally selfless simplicity and purity of expression. Even if just one or two of the Waltzes might be thought too fast, with over-swift internal tempo change for contrasting episodes, his gossamer lightness of touch and mercurial imaginative fancy explain why his way with them to quote BM again, has now acquired 'legendary status'".

"My only small regret is that this most excellently remastered medium-price CD deprives us of the endearingly spontaneous extended arpeggio with which Lipatti prefaced the opening Partita, as if in greeting to his instrument, and likewise the improvisatory modulation with which he carried his Besancon listeners from Bach's B flat major to Mozart's A minor."

Earlier, in the June 1989 issue of The Gramophone Chissell wrote of the pianist, following a previous EMI Lipatti release (devoted mostly to his studio recordings): "How good that a younger generation can now enjoy Lipatti on CD just as so many of us did during the last few decades on LP. The Bach and Mozart included here commemorate the miraculous albeit all too brief reprieve wrought by cortisone in the summer of 1950, when Walter Legge rushed out to record him in Geneva. The Scarlatti sonatas date back to his sessions at EMI's Abbey Road studio in 1947 while the Schubert Impromptus have the added poignancy of coming from his last public recital scarcely three months before his death in December 1950. The sound of this last Besancon Festival recording is a bit plummier than the rest. But for the most part the CD transfer does full justice to his quite exception tonal refinement.

"I've listened to these performances many, man times over the years. But from a pianistic view point, I'm bowled over anew, each time, by the pin-point clarity and precision of his articulation. Every note has a life of its own. His way of giving each textural strand in Bach a life of its own is less remarkable. In part this is attributable tone-colouring. In the Andante of Mozart's sonata (especially its middle section) his colouring see almost orchestrally inspired. Artistically who again impressed me most was his purity. As we know, he was never one to ''study a work with the eyes of the past, or of the dead'' as he once put it in a timely warning to students against too academic an allegiance to period style. The secret of his own purity lay in a life-long determination to ''avoid being carried away and taking slight liberties which gradually, stealthily, may become unpardonable deviations'. His playing has a serene simplicity, a wholly selfless dedication to the truth, that I think can only be described as God-given.”

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CONDITION:

The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.

The condition of the box is VERY GOOD. There is edgewear, shelfwear and light scuffing, but that is all. There are no seamsplits, corner breaks, bends, or owners' markings and the whole remains very solid, bright, and presentation worthy – an attractive collector's copy.

The condition of the 8-page booklet is EXCELLENT. It shows some faint discoloration, but the pages remain crisp and bright, the binding perfect.

The condition of the 2 LPs is VERY GOOD throughout. Although there is light surface noise, in general playback is quite fine. However, if you must have flawless or near-MINT surfaces, then please do not buy this set. Overall, these rate as very good collector's copies.

PLEASE NOTE:
This LP has been carefully cleaned using a VPI cleaning machine. All LPs are provided with a new Nagaoka (or Nagaoka-style) inner sleeve. The images I've provided are of the actual item you are potentially bidding on - these are not stock images or images I've taken from other sites. Bid with confidence!

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