The Last Recital [recorded 16th September 1950]

"Lipatti was like a comet lighting up the musical sky and one that comes around very infrequently but what glory there is when we are privileged to be witness to it! This is a disc to cherish and to relish at every playing."
(MusicWeb April 2011)

Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn

It is not surprising that Lipatti achieved cult status in the years following his death at the age of 33. He was an extremely sensitive musician and a man whose approach to the piano was one of utter fastidiousness, always striving for perfection in every aspect of his interpretation and performance. Throughout this Besançon recital there is a clarity of sound, evenness of attack and scrupulous attention to gradation of dynamics, characteristic hallmarks of Lipatti's playing. The fourteen Chopin Waltzes are played in the order that Lipatti chose for performance but, according to his wife, he was too physically weak to play the last Waltz in A flat, Op. 34 No. 1, so it is included here from his commercial recording of a few months before.