Dinu Lipatti's March 1 and 4, 1947 recording of Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B Minor Op. 58, recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studio No. 3 on Steinway 299.

1. Allegro maestoso 0:00
2. Scherzo 8:49
3. Largo 11:22
4. Finale. Presto ma non tanto 20:15

This is the only large-scale solo composition that Lipatti recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, the rest being shorter works that fit on one or two sides of a single 78rpm disc. In the post-war period, due to material shortages even established artists (Cortot, Moiseiwitsch, Schnabel) were recording an average of one solo multi-disc work and a larger number of shorter works per year. This is most unfortunate as Lipatti had in his repertoire at the time Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, Schumann's Etudes symphoniques, and Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin (he would play these three in a single recital together with four Bach Preludes & Fugues).

This performance of Chopin's Third Sonata captures Lipatti's pianism at its most vibrant and dynamic. While he was already suffering from Hodgkin's Disease, it had not yet strengthened its grip and Lipatti was still playing with tremendous force and vitality. His full-bodied sonority, burnished singing line, poised voicing, and subtle nuancing are more clearly discernible in this excellent 1999 transfer effected by Bryan Crimp on the APR label, which used vinyl pressings from the original metal masters.

Harold C Schonberg had not written much about Lipatti in his book The Great Pianists (the first edition featured a single sentence, the second giving more detail and adulation), but on hearing these transfers wrote that he could finally grasp the full nature of Lipatti's majestic and refined artistry. American Columbia LPs were very poorly transferred so Lipatti's artistry was generally not well represented on US pressings. Additionally, EMI has used the same transfer since their very first LPs (one can tell because of a 'surge' mid-chord from a poorly effected side join between the first and second sides in the first movement) - despite claims of new remasterings, none has returned to the source material as has this APR transfer, again available with the entirety of his 1947-48 recordings:

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