Dinu Lipatti plays Bach-Busoni Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052 (live in Amsterdam)

An October 2, 1947 concert recording of Dinu Lipatti playing the Bach-Busoni Concerto in D Minor BWV 1052 in Amsterdam, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Eduard van Beinum.

This recording first showed up in the early 1970s when Gregor Benko of the International Piano Library/Archives first issued it on his Opus Records label. At the time he obtained the tape in a trade with a collector, he had been unaware that Lipatti had played the Ravel G Major Concerto at the same concert, and somehow (and very regrettably) that performance has never materialized - nor has this extant Bach recording been located in official Dutch archives. After a release on several 'unofficial' labels, this recording was finally added to Lipatti's EMI (now Warner) discography in 2001 at my suggestion (along with the Liszt E-Flat and Bartok Third Concertos) and it is now part of Lipatti's 'official' discography.

This interpretation reveals aspects of Lipatti's artistry that are inconsistent with how he is usually perceived: he is often held up as a pianist who held the score as sacrosanct, despite the fact that he made changes to the score in his Alborada disc and his concert account of Schubert's E-Flat Impromptu. He uses some but not all of the Busoni variants in this glorious performance, making full use of the range of the piano and its means of expression.

The first movement is among the most fascinating performances that exist by Lipatti, with a number of passages in particular demonstrating his unconventional conception of this work. The section from 5:22 to 5:44, where arpeggios are extended and played with the most delightful inner rhythmic pulse, is magnificent. Perhaps the most incredible moment begins at 6:39, where he starts a phenomenally graduated decrescendo that brings the audience to complete silence as he highlights a downward chromatic progression, creating a melting effect until his playing goes down to a whisper at 7:02 - miraculous.

A further note: EMI provided two mastering choices to my colleague Werner Unger and me when they used our source material for the CD on which this was issued, and they ended up using the one that we had not recommended. The recording in this upload is the one that I had initially selected, which I believe has warmer sound than the issued version.

More about this recording and the background to its discovery and release at this page on my website here:

https://www.thepianofiles.com/dinu-li...

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