This intriguing new release from Avie features the original piano music and piano transcriptions by the tragically short lived Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950). His only orchestral work, the Concertino en style classique for piano and chamber orchestra, op. 3, is also his most popular work, which isn't difficult to believe considering its neoclassical delightfulness. His Piano Sonata in D minor and the Fantasie, more romantically inclined works than the Concertino, are the most substantial pieces on the program. Here's the complete contents of the set (taken from RI):
Concertino en style classique for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 3, Sonatine for the Left Hand, Sonata in D Minor*, Navarra (Albéniz, reworked by Lipatti)*, Nocturnes in F Sharp Minor, Op. 6 and in A Minor, Fantaisie, Op. 8*, Pastorale in F, BWV 590 (Bach transcr. Lipatti), 2 arias from Bach’s cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!, BWV 208 (transcr. Lipatti).
and the description from RI:
A composition student of Dukas and Nadia Boulanger, Lipatti was just as much a composer as a pianist and his compositions reflect the composers he most valued, from Bach through Chopin to his godfather Enescu. There are 56 minutes of World Premiere Recordings here, the largest of scale being the 14-year-old Lipatti’s sonata, a 22-minute piece in three movements whose allusions to Chopin and Liszt give it a more Romantic flavor than his later, more neo-classical works (like the well-known Concertino). The longest and most complex work is the 1940 Fantaisie, a five-movement, 30-minute work which Lipatti’s widow said he had hoped to develop into a symphony.The pianist is Luiza Borac, who is accompanied by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Jaime Martin in the Concertino.
:)
