Thanks to all who have written to me about this pianist (mostly expressing
amazement that I have ears at all).  Perhaps I should clarify:  I like
everything in the album, but, outside the Chopin, it doesn't do much for
me.  The Chopin I thought extraordinary, particularly the Sonata in b.
A great range of expression, including a nervous energy as well as a more
purely lyrical impulse, and a great naturalness to the playing.  As well
as this approach suits Chopin, I would have hoped that his Bach and Mozart
showed something other.  It's not so much a matter of "correct style" - I'm
about as far from a scholarly purist in questions of performance as one
can probably get (God help me, I've liked Bach for harmonica ensemble).
Horowitz plays Mozart's Sonata in F without any regard for period style,
and I think it one of the best Mozart performances I've heard.

However, Bach tells me different things than Chopin and Mozart different
things from either.  It's interesting to hear both composers played as if
they were Chopin, and I by no means believe that Lipatti has desecrated
either one.  It's just that the results I find vaguely unsatisfactory,
especially when lumped together in a collection.  I had not noticed this
in the isolated times I had heard Lipatti recordings (all of single works).
It seemed to me as though Lipatti knew of only one path to every composer.
Yes, Lipatti's Mozart is interesting in that it's a very Romantic,
Sturm-und-Drangish Mozart.  But it's really his Chopin applied to different
sheet music.

Steve Schwartz