Liner notes for Opus Kura’s CD issue of the recording of Dinu Lipatti’s last recital
The ten days Dinu Lipatti spent in the studios at Radio Genève in July 1950 produced about two hours of legendary recordings that now fit onto two CDs. This intensive work was made possible by cortisone treatment, which supported Lipatti’s health and gave him a level of vitality he had not known for some time. However, the experimental injections could not be continued with the frequency that had seemingly resurrected the pianist, and the Hodgkin’s Lymphoma from which he had been suffering since 1943 strengthened its grip. Lipatti gave only two more public performances: Mozart’s Concerto in C Major K.467 with Karajan at the Lucerne Festival on August 23, and a solo recital at the 3rd Besançon International Music Festival on September 16.
As the date of his appearance in Besançon approached, Lipatti was becoming more and more ill; nevertheless, in the days before the recital he wrote to his teacher Florica Musicescu and also to Paul Sacher that his health was fine. The morning of his performance, he practiced on the Gaveau piano in the Salle du Parliament without any problems. That afternoon, however, he developed a strong fever, and his doctor begged him to cancel; Lipatti did not want to consider this but admitted that he didn’t think he could perform. The organizer of the recital was contacted by telephone, and when he stated that the hall was already full, Lipatti made the decision to play. After some injections, he walked robot-like to the car that transported him to the hall. He took each step deliberately, with such difficulty that he decided that he would not leave the stage between pieces. The Radiodiffusion Française cancelled the live transmission of the recital, fearing the worst, but recorded the performance for future broadcast.
The hall was packed, with additional seating behind the piano, as seen in the previously unpublished photograph, reproduced here for the first time, taken by Michel Meusy, which appears in Philippe Roger’s documentary film ‘Le Recital de Besançon’ (2010). The concentration of both the artist and the audience members is palpable in both the photographs and the recording of the recital, with enthusiastic applause greeting each work. The Bach Partita he played with his trademark clarity, the Mozart A Minor Sonata brimming over with the drama and pathos that marked both composer’s and interpreter’s lives. And then Schubert, himself an artist who had suffered, found his ideal interpreter as Lipatti performed two Impromptus – the only works performed at the recital that Lipatti had not recorded two months earlier.
The last half of the program, the fourteen Chopin Waltzes, proceeded well, until a fumble near the end of the Waltz Op.64 No.3. There were two more waltzes on the program: Lipatti gave a heroic performance of the famous Grande Valse Brillante, Op.18, and then, sadly, came the most famous episode of his career. He was too weak to play the final waltz he had programmed, Op.34 No.1. While no recording of this part of the concert has been found, it is said that he began the waltz, and then stopped and left the stage. The audience waited in heavy silence. Then Lipatti reappeared, and played Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, the leitmotif of his career, which had been the first work he played at his first recital (in memory of his composition teacher Paul Dukas).
Despite other planned concerts later in September and in October, Lipatti did not give another public performance. He was interviewed by Swiss radio on September 29 and played the Bach-Kempff ‘Siciliano’ – while the interview itself survives, that performance has not been found. Lipatti last played his piano at home on November 20, serenading his wife with Chopin’s first Prelude and the slow movement of the Bach Pastorale which he had recently transcribed. On the afternoon of December 2, Dinu Lipatti died after the rupture of an abscess on his one working lung. He was 33 years old. The tape of the Besançon recital, which had remained dormant in Radiodiffusion Française archives, was broadcast the next day as news of the pianist’s death was announced.
Jacques Leiser, a producer with EMI France, learned of the tape’s existence while he was researching Furtwangler broadcast recordings in French radio archives around 1956, and tried to convince EMI to issue it. The two Schubert Impromptus had already been included in a commemorative French Columbia five-LP album issued in 1955 for the fifth anniversary of Lipatti’s death. Why EMI had these two pieces in their archive yet not the entire recital is not clear – perhaps Lipatti’s widow Madeleine offered the two works for release without stating that the entire recital had been recorded. The label cited as reasons not to issue the whole performance the lower fidelity of the recording and the duplication of works already recorded by the pianist. Leiser eventually succeeded: the album was released on EMI’s American ‘Angel’ label in 1957 and was such a huge success – it was featured on the cover of the Saturday Review magazine – that the European label followed suit, and the legendary concert has been considered a classic of the gramophone ever since.
The recording as released is not complete. As stated, a recording of Lipatti’s unsuccessful attempt at playing the A-Flat Waltz and the final Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring has not yet been found. Documentary film producer Philippe Roger has, however, fortunately located some unreleased portions of the recital, notably the arpeggios Lipatti played prior to performing the Schubert Impromptus and Chopin Waltzes (Lipatti’s ‘warm ups’ to the Bach and Mozart can be heard on this CD), as well as more audience applause, and these are featured in his film. It is to be hoped that the entire recital will be found and issued as a complete CD.
In the meantime, the full-bodied remastering presented here enables the listener to more fully appreciate the emotional and spiritual event of one of recorded history’s great musical landmarks, Dinu Lipatti’s last recital.
(C) 2010 Mark Ainley
