Lipatti, Dinu

PIANIST (ROMANIA)
BORN 19 Mar 1917, Bucharest - DIED 2 Dec 1950, Genève
BIRTH NAME Lipatti, Constantin
CAUSE OF DEATH Hodgkin's disease
GRAVE LOCATION Genève, Genève: Cimetière de Chêne-Bourg, Avenue du Vieux-Bourg

Constantin Lipatti was known from childhood as Dinu. He was the son of a violinist who had studied with Carl Flesch. His mother was a pianist. He studied piano and composition under Mihail Jora. At the Conservatory in Bucharest Florica Musicescu was his teacher. In 1932 he won several prizes for his compositions. He continued his studies in Paris under Alfred Cortot and Nadia Boulanger. Paul Dukas and Charles Munch were further teachers. He gave his first recital in Paris in 1935.

During the Second World War he fled Romania in September 1943 together with his companion the pianist Madeleine Cantacuzene. After visiting Sweden he settled in Switzerland, where he was appointed professor of piano at the Conservatory of Geneva. Soon afterwards he fell ill and after and initially it was unclear what was wrong with him. In 1947 he was diagosed with Hodgkin's disease. He married Madeleine in 1948, but his health continued to detoriate. He still gave performances and made recordings.

At the Besançon Festival in France he gave his last performance on 16 September 1950. He was desperately ill and only the new medicin cortison enabled him to give an ontstanding performance. Three months later he died in Geneva from a burst abcess in one of his lungs. He was buried at the cemetery of Chêne-Bourg. Madeleine was buried beside him in 1982.

Related persons
• was pupil of Boulanger, Nadia
• was a friend of Haskil, Clara
• was pupil of Stravinsky, Igor

Images

The grave of Dinu Lipatti at the Cimetière de Chêne-Bourg, Genève.
Picture by Androom (23 Aug 2019)

 

Sources
Dinu Lipatti - Wikipedia


Lippert, Marion

Published: 22 Mar 2020
Last update: 22 Mar 2020