Monthly Archives: January 2013

Dinu Lipatti’s Repertoire – Chamber Music

January 1

It is a little known fact that Dinu Lipatti was a skilled and enthusiastic chamber music performer. In his teens at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, he had a trio with his fellow students Ginette Neveu and Antonio Janigro. He would tour Switzerland in 1947 with Janigro but it doesn’t seem as though he played with Neveu again, a real loss for posterity, especially since both of them were EMI recording artists. While he recorded his godfather Georges Enescu’s second and third Violin Sonatas with the composer performing, he didn’t officially record any chamber music from the mainstream repertoire. However, he did record six works with Antonio Janigro as a test for Walter Legge in May 1947, but these were never released in his lifetime and only a few shorter works were found and issued in 1994 (this will be the subject of another post).

Below are all of the chamber music works that Dinu Lipatti is known to have played in public, and his private repertoire was doubtless larger: violinist Lola Bobescu spoke of them having played a Mendelssohn Trio together.

Bach
Sonata No.3 in E Major for Violin and Piano, BWV 1016
Sonata No.2 in D Major for Cello and Piano, BWV 1025

Beethoven
Sonata No.6 in A Major for Violin and Piano, Op.30 No.1
Sonata No.7 in C Minor for Violin and Piano, Op.30 No.2
Sonata No.10 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op.96
Sonata No.3 in A Major for Cello and piano, Op.69
Trio No.4 in B Major, Op.8

Brahms
Liebeslieder Walzer Op.52 for Two Pianos and Singers
Sonata No.1 in E Minor for Cello and Piano, Op.38
Trio No.1 in B Major, Op.8

Chopin
Nocturne in C Sharp Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. Posth.

Enescu
Sonata No.2 in F Minor for Violin and Piano, Op.6
Sonata No.3 in A Minor for Violin and Piano, Op.25
Impressions d’enfance (Suite for Violin and Piano), Op.28

Fauré
Sonata No.1 in A Major for Violin and Piano, Op.13
Sonata No.2 in E Minor for Violin and Piano, Op.108
‘Après un rêve’ for Cello and Piano (after Melodie Op.7 No.1)

Franck
Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano

Lipatti
Sonatina for Violin and Piano
Fantaisie cosmopolite for Violin, Cello, and Piano

Mozart
Sonata in G Major for Violin and Piano, K.379
Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, K.526?

Ravel
‘Pièce en forme de Habanera’ for Cello and Piano

Rimsky-Korsakov
‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’ for Cello and Piano

Schubert
Trio No.1 in B-Flat Major, D.898

Dinu Lipatti’s Repertoire – Piano and Orchestra

January 1

This is a list of works for piano and orchestra that Dinu Lipatti played in public over the course of his career, starting in his teens. His private repertoire was larger – he prepared Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto, for example (his score is filled with detailed fingerings) but he never played it in public. But, contrary to popular belief, he did play Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto – twice, both in Bucharest in the 1940-41 season.

Lipatti recorded only three of these works commercially – the Grieg, Schumann, and his own Concertino – but we now have recordings of 9 out of the 23 works for piano and orchestra that he performed. Let us hope that more broadcast recordings of these other works will surface!

This list will be amended to include dates of known performances of these works based on concert programs in private and official collections.

Works for Piano and Orchestra

Bach-Busoni Piano Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052
Bach Concerto for Two Pianos in C Minor, BWV 1060?
Bach Concerto for Two Pianos in C Major, BWV 1061
Bartok Piano Concerto No.3
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 in E-Flat Major, Op.73
Chopin Andante Spianato and Polonaise for Piano and Orchestra, Op.22
Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 in E Minor, Op.11
Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.16
Haydn Piano Concerto in D Major Hob.VIII:11 (cadenzas by Lipatti)
Lipatti Concertino in Classical Style, Op.3
Lipatti Danses Roumaines for Piano and Orchestra
Lipatti Symphonie Concertante for Two Pianos and String Orhcestra
Liszt Piano Concerto No.1, S124
Liszt Piano Concerto No.2, S125
Martin Ballade for Piano and Orchestra
Martin “La danse de la peur” for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos in E-Flat Major, K365
Mozart Piano Concerto No.9 in E-Flat Major, K271
Mozart Piano Concerto No.20 in D Minor, K.466 (cadenzas by Beethoven)
Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 in C Major, K.467 (cadenzas by Lipatti)
Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major
Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.54
Stravinsky Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra

Scheduled Lipatti Work Projects

January 1

Before he died, Dinu Lipatti mapped out his proposed repertoire for the coming years. This information was only published in the booklet accompanying the memorial release of his Columbia recordings in a 5-disc set in 1955 and then on my previous website. The thought of Lipatti performing these works is tantalizing to say the least, and the unorthodox programming also gives great insight into his unique approach to music:

Summer 1950
Brahms – Concerto in B-Flat Major
Stravinsky – Capriccio [i]

Summer 1951
Recital No.7
Bach – Prelude and Fugue in A Minor
Haydn – Sonata in C Minor
Beethoven – Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op.106
Chopin – Sonata in B-Flat Minor, Op.35

Summer 1952
Beethoven – Concerto No.4 in G Major
Franck – Variations Symphoniques

Summer 1953
Recital No.8
Bach – Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue
Bartok – Suite Op.14
Beethoven – Sonata in D Minor Op.31 No.2
Brahms – Variations on a theme of Handel

Summer 1954
Tchaikovsky – Concerto in B-Flat Minor [ii]
Hindemith – Concerto [iii]

Summer 1955
Recital No.9
Bach – Italian Concerto
Stravinsky – Sonata
Liszt – Sonata
Debussy – 12 Preludes

Summer 1956
Chopin – Concerto in F Minor [iv]
Lipatti – Concerto [v]

Summer 1957
Recital No.10
Bach – Three Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier
Chopin – 12 Etudes Op.10
Bach – Three other Preludes and Fugues
Chopin – 12 Etudes Op.25

[i] Lipatti had actually performed the Capriccio in the 1930s and was no doubt refreshing it here. It is interesting to note that a critic in Bucharest wrote that he found Lipatti’s style of playing more suited to the Capriccio than to the Mozart Concerto he played it with that night.

[ii] It is likely the fact that Lipatti planned to study the work in 1954 that led Walter Legge to say that Lipatti needed four years to prepare the work, though it is possible Lipatti might have said something along those lines as well. However, there is correspondence indicating that Lipatti had agreed to record the work with Karajan in 1949, but as Legge had already discussed recording the work with Malcuzynski, the project was nixed.

[iii] It is unclear if this is The Four Temperaments or if Hindemith was planning on writing a concerto for Lipatti. The two artists had performed together in Lucerne in 1947.

[iv] Walter Legge had written that he first heard Lipatti in a rehearsal for Chopin’s F Minor Concerto. In fact, he never played it and it must have been the E Minor Concerto.

[v] In a recorded interview with Henri Jaton on August 23, 1950, Lipatti stated that he hoped to write a piano concerto (starting at 3:50 in the presented audio clip)

Monthly Archives: January 2013

Dinu Lipatti’s Repertoire – Chamber Music

Dinu Lipatti’s Repertoire – Piano and Orchestra

Scheduled Lipatti Work Projects

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