Timeline
1934
- Lipatti plays at the Peleș Castle in Sinaia and in the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest (where he meets Arthur Rubinstein) in several benefit concerts held at the initiative of Queen Mary.
- April 25: he presents, in a concert organised by the Romanian Composers’ Society, his Sonatina for violin and piano, with Anton Adrian Sarvaș.
- He wins the George Enescu Composition Competition with his symphonic suite Les tziganes.
- Invited by Alfred Cortot, he enrols in the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, where he studies with Yvonne Lefébure (piano) and Paul Dukas (composition).
1935
- February 25: George Enescu conducts at the Ecole Normale de Musique. On that occasion, Dinu Lipatti introduces Enescu’s Piano sonata in F sharp minor.
- He meets pianist Edwin Fischer and plays for him Bach, Brahms and Chopin. Fischer encourages him and appreciates the high level of his pianism.
- May 20: on the day his teacher Paul Dukas was buried, Lipatti plays for the first time at the Ecole Normale. He opened his recital with a work not part of the official programme, Bach’s chorale “Jesu bleibet meine Freude”. The recital was received as a significant occurrence in the Parisian musical life.
- He begins composing a fantasy for piano and orchestra.
- Following Mihail Jora’s advice, he begins studying composition with Nadia Boulanger.
- Lipatti starts working on concert for piano and orchestra.
- October 27: recital at Radio Geneva with Beethoven and Ravel. Afterwards, he plays, at the Geneva Music Conservatory and in Montreaux (in the company of the Manhattan Quartet), Bach’s C major Toccata.
1936
- January 23: Mihail Jora conducts, in Bucharest, Lipatti’s Les tziganes. The concert was broadcast by the Romanian Radio.
- March 4: the first performance of Lipatti’s Sonata in e minor for violin and piano, with Lola Bobescu and the author playing in a concert organised by Alfred Cortot under the aegis of the Friends of the Ecole Normale de Musique Association.
- March 17: recital at the Cercle interallié in Paris. The performance, featuring works by Brahms and Chopin, was radio broadcast.
- March 31: he finishes his Concertino in the classical style for piano and orchestra.
-June 10: Lipatti takes part in the festival organised by Triton Association in Bucharest and dedicated to the music of George Enescu. He played the Sonata in F sharp minor.
- Autumn: he plays with George Enescu at the Romanian Athenaeum in a programme with works by Beethoven and Franck as well as Lipatti’s own Sonatina for violin and piano.
- He opens the Bucharest Philharmonic’s 1936 – 1937 season, playing the Piano concerto no. 20 in d minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (with his own cadenzas) and the Capriccio by Igor Stravinsky.
1937
- Lipatti becomes Nadia Boulanger’s frequent partner for concertos for two pianos.
- He records for Columbia Records.
- His continues his studies with Alfred Cortot (piano) and Nadia Boulanger (composition).
- Summer: George Enescu conducts, in an all-Romanian programme presented within the International Exposition in Paris, the second movement (“Ivresse / Le festin”) from Les tziganes. As soloist or in chamber music groups, Lipatti plays Nottara, Klepper, Negrea and Lazăr. He forms a trio with violinist Lola Bobescu and cellist Antonio Janigro, and they would afterwards tour together.
- Les tgizanes is awarded the Silver Medal of the French Republic.
- October: Lipatti performs, with the Bucharest Philharmonic led by George Georgescu, Liszt’s first piano concerto.
- He plays with George Enescu at the Romanian Athenaeum, giving works by Mozart, Beethoven and Enescu.
1938
- End of January: Lipatti finishes recordings Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes, in the company of Nadia Boulanger and a vocal quartet.
- He tours Italy.
- February 16: he plays in a recital organised by Alfred Cortot and the Friends of the Ecole Normale de Musique Association. The programme featured works by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Enescu, Andricu, Jora, Mihalovici as well as Lipatti’s own Nocturne on a Moldavian theme.
- He begins writing the ballet sketch Bourlesque.
- He attends Alexanian’s conducting course at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.