FCX 491/95 Dinu LIPATTI MEMORIAL EDITION 1917-1950 Box 5 LP

$

75

• Artist :  Dinu LIPATTI (piano)   
• Composers : Chopin, Bach, Schubert, Schuman, Grieg, Ravel, Liszt     
• Title : 1917-1950 - MEMORIAL EDITION             
  
  Label : Columbia FCX 491-195 blue label with silver lettering
  Release :  This set was first issued in December 1955 and is now nearly 60 years old.
• Disc type : Vinyl 12" 
  Pressing : France
  Sound : mono
  Number of records :   5 LP 

Cover's condition : box VG+ consolidated with black adhesive tape (see pictures)
                               booklet EX+
 Record's condition : VG+ to NM+ surfaces are glossy, without no backgroud surface noise. The sound is beautiful and the listrening is very pleasant in spite of few defects on some side (see below for details) 

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This beautiful and rare 5 LP box set – a magnificent collector’s copy – from Columbia (FCX 491-195, French pressing, blue/silver labels, original inner sleeves and full-size lavish booklet included) entitled “Dinu Lipatti  1917-1950” features what remains the very finest tribute to the Romanian pianist ever issued, a remarkable one-of-a-kind set in his memory.

In addition to the cloth box, each LP is housed in a “Columbia”  sleeve.

More impressive still is the extraordinary full-size 24-page booklet, consisting of a series of individual leaflets (not bound), with a wealth of documentary material about Lipatti. Made in cooperation with Lipatti’s widow, there are tantalizing glimpses – drawn from the his private archives – into what might have been had his life not been cut short by leukemia.

This includes:

§  Beautiful portraits of Lipatti, alone and with his family;

§  Photos of Lipatti with Markevitch,  Hindemith,  Cortot,  Mainardi,  Sacher,  Honegger, Legge, et al.

§  Tributes from Karajan, Markevitch,  Ansermet,  Boulanger,  Cortot,  Backhaus, et al.;

§  Extensive notes by Madeleine Lipatti, Dorel Handman, and Henry Louis de la Grange;

§  A listing of Lipatti’s own compositions and transcriptions;

§  A listing of scheduled recordings that would never materialize, including Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Debussy’s Preludes, Brahms’s Handel Variations, Chopin’s Etudes Op. 10, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and much else

The recordings preserved in this set are as follows:

FCX 491

·         Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra – rec. 1948

·         Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16, with Aleceo Galliera conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra – rec. 1947

FCX 492

°        Chopin: 14 Waltzes – rec. 'live' 1950

FCX 493

·         Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58 – rec. 1947

·         Chopin: Barcarolle in F-sharp Major Op.60 – rec. 1948

·         Chopin: Nocturne No. 8 in D Major Op.27 No. 2 – rec. 1947

·         Chopin: Mazurka No. 32 in C-sharp minor Op.50 No. 3 – rec. 'live' 1950

FCX 494

·         Bach/Hess: "Jesu bleibet meine Freude" - Choral from Cantata BWV 147 – rec. 1950

·          Bach: Partita No. 1 in B Major BWV 825 – rec. 1950

·         Bach/Busoni: "Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland" - Choral Prelude BWV 599 – rec. 1950

·         Bach/Busoni: "Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" – Choral Prelude BWV 639 – rec. 1950

·         Bach/Kempff: Siciliana from Sonata No. 2 for flute BWV 1031 – rec. 1947

·         Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor K. 310 – rec. 1950

FCX 495

·         Enescu: Piano Sonata No. 3 in D Major Op. 25 – rec. 1943

·         Ravel: Alborada del gracioso, from Miroirs – rec. 1948

·         Scarlatti: Sonata in E Major L. 23 (KK. 380) – rec. 1947

·         Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor “Pastorale” L. 413 (KK. 9) – rec. 1950

·         Liszt: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca – rec. 1947

·         Schubert: Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major D. 899 – rec. 'live' 1950

·         Schubert: Impromptu No. 2 in E-flat Major D. 899 – rec. 'live' 1950

In the June 1989 issue of The Gramophone the eminent critic Joan Chissell wrote of the pianist:

"How good that a younger generation can now enjoy Lipatti on CD just as so many of us did during the last few decades on LP. The Bach and Mozart included here commemorate the miraculous albeit all too brief reprieve wrought by cortisone in the summer of 1950, when Walter Legge rushed out to record him in Geneva. The Scarlatti sonatas date back to his sessions at EMI's Abbey Road studio in 1947 while the Schubert Impromptus have the added poignancy of coming from his last public recital scarcely three months before his death in December 1950. The sound of this last Besancon Festival recording is a bit plummier than the rest. But for the most part the CD transfer does full justice to his quite exception tonal refinement.

"I've listened to these performances many, many times over the years. But from a pianistic view point, I'm bowled over anew, each time, by the pin-point clarity and precision of his articulation. Every note has a life of its own. His way of giving each textural strand in Bach a life of its own is less remarkable. In part this is attributable tone-colouring. In the Andante of Mozart's sonata (especially its middle section) his colouring see almost orchestrally inspired. Artistically who again impressed me most was his purity. As we know, he was never one to ''study a work with the eyes of the past, or of the dead'' as he once put it in a timely warning to students against too academic an allegiance to period style. The secret of his own purity lay in a life-long determination to ''avoid being carried away and taking slight liberties which gradually, stealthily, may become unpardonable deviations'. His playing has a serene simplicity, a wholly selfless dedication to the truth, that I think can only be described as God-given.”

GRADING  

FCX 491 Side One : EX- a very thin scrath cause some slight tics

FCX 491 Side Two : NM+

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FCX 492 Side One : NM-

FCX 492 Side Two : NM-

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FCX 493 Side One : EX+

FCX 493 Side Two : NM+

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FCX 494 Side One : VG+ one defect causes 22 tics 

FCX 494 Side Two : NM+

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FCX 495 Side One : VG- three defects cause tics in Enescu's sonata

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Surfaces are glossy,  no backgroud surface noise. The sound is beautiful and the listrening is very pleasant in spite of these local defects

Overall, these records as truly excellent collector's copies

All Labels: Near Mint

The condition of the 5 "Columbia" original inner sleeves is NM-. 

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MINT+

The record is perfect. I believe played once or never..
The cover and packaging may be sealed or as new.

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