How many times do these familiar performances have to be reissued on CD? Not enough, it seems. In any case, the Lipatti/Galliera 1947 Grieg Concerto is transferred here to brighter emphasis than Bryan Crimp’s more judicious EQ-ing for APR. As a result, EMI’s treble bias may sound too strident, the piano’s upper register a bit “twangy” for some tastes. If you’ve a modest parametric equalizer on your receiver you can doctor EMI’s latest transfer as you see fit. What’s important is that you get to know Lipatti’s Grieg Concerto. Among the 78-era’s best versions, it features pianism that fuses Michelangeli’s aristocratic polish with Rubinstein’s fire and spontaneity into an even more satisfying whole.
The live Chopin E minor–refined soloist versus sluggish conductor–offers no noticeable sonic improvement from old to new EMI versions. Its fullest sounding transfer remains the one on Palexa CD 0509. The two Chopin Etudes Lipatti offers as an encore, however, sound best not on Palexa but on Archiphon’s “Les Inédits” Lipatti compilation; by contrast, EMI’s latest dubs sound dimmer. And now I’ve made up my mind: From this day forward, I won’t review another Dinu Lipatti re-re-re-re-re-release for Classicstoday.com until A) new material surfaces, or, B) EMI (or anyone else for that matter) issues a truly comprehensive Lipatti collection, painstakingly annotated and remastered from scratch in the manner of RCA’s William Kapell or Artur Rubinstein editions. Now where did I put that latest edition of the live wartime Furtwängler/Berlin Beethoven 9th?
