Unlike Lipatti’s 1950 recordings, made in the last year of his brief life on a less than ideal instrument, his 1947 sessions capture the full scope of his penetrating, variegated sonority on a first-rate Steinway grand. More to the point, a remission in the pianist’s terminal illness enabled him to project his noble conceptions of the Chopin B Minor Sonata, D-flat Nocturne, Barcarolle, the Grieg Concerto, and Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnet No. 104 with cogent virtuosity and concentrated poetry. The rare 1947 Bach/Hess “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” slightly more heavy-gaited than the familiar 1950 account, appears in a long playing format for the first time. APR’s transfers boast more detail than previous reissues, but are less bright on top than EMI’s 1990 Lipatti boxed set. Excellent notes and thorough discographical information round out a generously filled reissue.
