The very first audition brought Oliver Mascarenhas to the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover in 1997. This was followed by a busy concert schedule, radio and television productions, and successes at international competitions. On his first album production, Oliver Mascarenhas presents himself as a highly virtuoso interpreter of the cello concerto by Friedrich Gulda as well as three pieces by the Russian jazz composer Nikolai Kapustin, who died in July 2020. As grandiose bonus tracks we hear Gulda with four jazz standards, recorded in 1958 at the NDR. On bass none other than the young Hans alias James Last.

The production with tenor Markus Schäfer and his accompanist Mihai Ungureanu, which bundles works by three important Romanian composers, is intended as a musical homage to Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950), who died much too early and whose unbroken fame as a brilliant pianist makes it easy to forget that he was also an important composer. Dinu Lipatti is a unique figure in the pantheon of pianists. His international fame is due almost exclusively to the widespread distribution of recorded output that was in the words of his producer Walter Legge, “small in output but of the purest gold.” When Lipatti died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 33 in December 1950, he left behind little more than three and a half hours of recordings for EMI’s Columbia label. Since that time, those recordings have been published in the catalogue the world over and gradually supplemented by a handful of highly prized unpublished concert and broadcast performances. Six decades after Lipatti’s death, the search for more examples of his playing continues, and indeed more treasures are coming to light.

On this current recording you can hear a wonderful example of a magical First Encounter. Wu Man and Wu Wei, both exceptional Chinese musicians, had never performed together. Over the years they have kicked the windows and doors of their music wide open, have assimilated diverse influences and have taken their instruments and musical traditions all over the world. Their openness and the simply phenomenal mastery of their playing have brought Chinese music to millions of listeners. Wu Man’s elegant precision of attack meets Wu Wei’s Sheng, which at times has an almost transparent delicacy, and at others can pulse as forcefully as a power house.