Dinu Lipatti

“Dinu Lipatti from Rumania worked with Cortot in Paris. His death in 1950 at the age of 33 took away a pianist who would have been one of the major figures of the century. He had everything—technique, style, a beautiful sound, sensitivity, musicianship, elegance.”

“The kind of playing that encourages me is playing that lets me in, so to speak: the pianist, by the intimacy of his or her playing, makes me feel that I would want to play that way too. The work of Dinu Lipatti, who turned out burningly pure performances of Mozart and Chopin, exudes that sense, as does the work of a relatively obscure school of British pianists—Myra Hess, Clifford Curzon, the great Solomon, and the equally fine Benno Moiseiwitsch. Today Daniel Barenbboim, Radu Lupu, and Perahia carry on in that vein.”

“In this performance, this partita is really prodigious. Bach's beauty and charm; a magnificent piano tone and a magnificent pianist!”

“You see, it is not enough to be a great composer. To write music like that you must be a chosen instrument of God.”