“…wanting to restore to music its historical framework is like dressing an adult in an adolescent’s clothes. This might have a certain charm in the context of a historical reconstruction, yet is of no interest to those other than lovers of dead leaves or the collectors of old pipes”
“Music has to live under our fingers, under our eyes, in our hearts and in our brains with all that we, the living, can offer it.”
Dinu Lipatti was a consummate artist whose playing was sublime.
As usual, the critics are limited by their own shortsightedness and inadequacies. This essay explains why it is important to play music in our time even if it not of our time, and how striving for authenticity can strangle creativity in performance.
Here is my favourite surviving recording of Lipatti:
Bach at his final recital (with a little arpeggio)
A very great performance, Gerald, of a very great masterwork by one of the great recent-modern masters!