Abstract

Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950) was a composer, performer and pedagogue of genius, gifted with the amazing temperament of a “poet of the piano”, as conductor Ernest Ansermet used to call him, and, we would add, with that of a “poet of the pen” as well. There was, however, another field in which he was particularly interested, though less known to the public, namely that of music criticism. Over a period of two years, i.e. between 1938-1939, as a member of the “International Association of Art Critics”, he published music chronicles and criticism in the Libertatea newspaper, as our correspondent in Paris. Thus, the Romanian public came into contact with personalities of international music such as Fritz Kreisler, Charles Münch, Hephzibah and Yehudi Menuhin, Leon Szighera, Wanda Landowska, Hermann Scherchen etc. Dinu Lipatti successfully demonstrated that he was a true Debussy of his homeland: he was a composer, performer, teacher and critic. His works of criticism reveal a personality that coalesces around at least six salient traits: minuteness, elegance, neutrality, talent, (h)onesty, responsibility – which can be summarized by the acronym MENTOR.

Keywords: minuteness, elegance, neutrality, talent, (h)onesty, responsibility, mentor

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