Radu Lupu CBE (30 November 1945 – 17 April 2022) was a
Romanian Jewish pianist. He was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of his time.
[3][4][5] Born in
Galați, Romania, Lupu began studying piano at the age of six. Two of his major piano teachers were
Florica Musicescu, who also taught
Dinu Lipatti, and
Heinrich Neuhaus, who also taught
Sviatoslav Richter and
Emil Gilels. From 1966 to 1969, he won three of the world's most prestigious piano competitions: the
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (1966), the
George Enescu International Piano Competition (1967), and the
Leeds International Pianoforte Competition (1969). These victories launched Lupu's international career, and he appeared with all of the major orchestras and at all of the major festivals and music capitals of the world.
From 1970 to 1993, Lupu made over 20 recordings for
Decca Records. His solo recordings, which have received considerable acclaim, include works by
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Grieg,
Mozart,
Schubert, and
Schumann, including all of Beethoven's piano concertos and five piano sonatas and other solo works; the Grieg and Schumann piano concertos, as well as three major solo works of Schumann; nine piano sonatas and the Impromptus and
Moments musicaux of Schubert; various major solo works and the first piano concerto of Brahms; and two piano concertos of Mozart. His chamber music recordings for Decca include all of Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano with
Szymon Goldberg; the violin sonatas of
Debussy and
Franck with
Kyung Wha Chung; and various works by Schubert for violin and piano with Goldberg. He additionally recorded works of Mozart and Schubert for piano four-hands and two pianos with
Murray Perahia for
CBS Masterworks, Schubert songs with
Barbara Hendricks for
EMI, and works by Schubert for piano four-hands with
Daniel Barenboim for
Teldec. In addition, Lupu is also noted for his performances of
Bartók,
Debussy,
Enescu, and
Janáček, among other composers.
Lupu was nominated for two
Grammy Awards, winning one in 1996 for an album of two Schubert piano sonatas. In 1995, Lupu also won an
Edison Award for a disc of three major piano works of Schumann. Other awards won by Lupu include the
Franco Abbiati Prize in 1989 and 2006, and the 2006 Premio Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli award.
The
Moscow Conservatory, where Lupu studied from 1961 to 1969
Lupu was born in
Galați, Romania on 30 November 1945, the son of Meyer Lupu, an attorney, and Ana Gabor, a linguist.
[6] From his earliest days, Lupu "had always expressed himself by singing", and was given his first piano at the age of five.
[7] He began piano studies in 1951, as a six-year-old, with Lia Busuioceanu. He made his public debut in 1957, at age 12, in a concert featuring his own compositions.
[7] He told
The Christian Science Monitor in 1970 that "from the very beginning I regarded myself as a composer. I was sure, and everybody else was sure, that one day I would become a famous composer". He gave up composing about four years later, saying that he thought he would be "much better as a pianist".
[7]
After completing high school in Galați, and graduating from the Popular School for the Arts in
Brașov, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Victor Bickerich, Lupu continued his piano studies at the
Bucharest Conservatory (1959–1961) with
Florica Musicescu (who also taught
Dinu Lipatti), and Cella Delavrancea, studying also composition with Dragos Alexandrescu. At the age of 16, in 1961, he was awarded a scholarship to the
Moscow Conservatory, where he studied for seven years. In
Moscow, he first studied with
Galina Eguiazarova (a pupil of
Alexander Goldenweiser) for two years, and then with
Heinrich Neuhaus (who also taught
Sviatoslav Richter and
Emil Gilels) and later with his son,
Stanislav Neuhaus.
[8] He graduated in 1969.
[9][10] Lupu was also a student of
Maria Curcio, a student of
Artur Schnabel.
[9] However, in a 1981 interview, when asked about what types of influences his teachers had on him, Lupu answered that he thought of himself as more
autodidactic: "My first teacher took me to every orchestral concert, and I am also grateful for what I learned in Moscow, but I think of myself, basically (in music anyway), as somebody who is more autodidactic. I took some from
Furtwängler,
Toscanini, everywhere...more and more so since I left Moscow."
[11]
In 1965, Lupu was placed fifth at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna.
[12] The following year, he won the first prize in the second
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; he also won special prizes for the best performance of a commissioned work (of Willard Straight's "Structure for Piano")
[13] and the best performance of a movement
[13] from the
Aaron Copland Piano Sonata.
[14] In the finals, his performance of the first movement of
Sergei Prokofiev's
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Op. 16), a required piece, was described by Paul Hume of
The Washington Post as "the most fiery and thunderous of any of the six finalists". In addition to the Prokofiev, he performed
Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 5 (Op. 73).
[15] Alicia de Larrocha, who was on the jury, declared Lupu a genius.
[16] "I did not expect it at all. I am just speechless," Lupu said after his victory.
[13] Shortly after the competition, in April 1967, Lupu made his debut at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City in a program of Beethoven,
Schubert, and
Chopin.
[17] However, Lupu reportedly turned down many of the other engagements that came with the prize, instead choosing to further his studies in Moscow.
[4]
A year after his Cliburn Competition victory, in 1967, Lupu won the first prize in the
George Enescu International Piano Competition. Two years later, in October 1969,
[18] he won the
Leeds International Piano Competition; he performed Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 3 (Op. 37) in the finals.
[19] The following month, in November 1969, Lupu made his solo debut in London;
Joan Chissell of
The Times wrote about his performance of the second movement of Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 7 at the recital: "He brought what seemed like a lifetime's experience to its alternating desolation and pride. Never could music come nearer to speech."
[8][20][21]
In April 1970, Lupu made his first recording for
Decca Records: Brahms'
Rhapsody in B minor (Op. 79 No. 1) and
Three Intermezzi (Op. 117), and
Schubert's
Piano Sonata in A minor (D. 784).
[22] He continued to record for the label for the following 23 years.
[23] In August 1970, the 24-year-old pianist made his debut at
The Proms, performing
Brahms'
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 15) with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Edo de Waart at the
Royal Albert Hall.
[24] In November 1970, he made his first concerto recording for Decca, of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Lawrence Foster;
[25] he also recorded Beethoven's
32 Variations in C minor (WoO 80).
[23]
Lupu's first major American appearances after his Leeds Competition victory were in February 1972 with the
Cleveland Orchestra in the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with
Daniel Barenboim conducting at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City,
[26] and in October 1972 with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with
Carlo Maria Giulini conducting.
[27] The performance of the Brahms with the Cleveland Orchestra and Barenboim was reviewed by
Harold C. Schonberg, a
Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for
The New York Times who had ten years prior notably lambasted the famous
New York Philharmonic concert of 6 April 1962 where the same concerto was played by
Glenn Gould with the
New York Philharmonic conducted by
Leonard Bernstein.
[28] Schonberg was also critical of the performance by Lupu and Barenboim, writing that not since the Bernstein-Gould performance "had there been such an interpretation" of the concerto, describing it as "willful, episodic and mannered, self-indulgent, capricious". However, he added that "yet through all the eccentricities came the feeling of two young musicians trying hard to get out of the rut and once in a while actually succeeding", but that "in future years this kind of approach may jell for them. Right now it does not come off."
[29]
Although Schonberg had been critical of Lupu's debut with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Barenboim in February 1972, he was far more enthusiastic of Lupu's performance in November 1972 of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster at Carnegie Hall, writing, in
The New York Times, that "his performance did much to redeem the impression he had made last season in the Brahms D minor Concerto. Then he sounded mannered, finicky, artificial. This time he was a different pianist."
[30] Schonberg added:
Quote:His proclamation in the cadenza‐like opening was big and bold, featured by a penetrating though glassy tone. This set the stage for a fiery performance that was consistently interesting. It may have been banged out a bit, it may have been lacking in color resource, but it did have propulsion, and it did have ideas. And it had superb momentum aside from a few bad rhythmic groupings in the slow movement.
T
he following year, Lupu recorded the piano concertos of
Schumann (
Op. 54) and
Grieg (
Op. 16) with the
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by
André Previn, a recording described by
Gramophone as "grandly commanding".
[31] In February 1974, Lupu performed a recital at
Hunter College in New York, which was raved by
John Rockwell of
The New York Times. Rockwell declared Lupu "no ordinary pianist" and wrote about Lupu's performance of Schubert's
Piano Sonata in B-flat major (D. 960):
[32]
Quote:During the Schubert, however, the audience's attentive silence was extraordinary. It was as though Mr. Lupu were employing some sort of alchemy to work a spell over everyone. That, indeed, is just about what he did, for he has that mysterious something that goes beyond technique, erudition and general musicality to reach into the sensibilities of listeners.
In November 1974, Lupu made his debut with the
New York Philharmonic, performing Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 21 (K. 467) conducted by
James Conlon.
[33][34] In 1975, Lupu debuted with the
Concertgebouw Orchestra and gave the premiere of the
André Tchaikowsky Piano Concerto, Op. 4 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Uri Segal at the
Royal Festival Hall.
[35][36] In 1976, Lupu recorded Brahms'
6 Klavierstücke (Op. 118) and
4 Klavierstücke (Op. 119), which was described by
Stereo Review as "a glowing realization of what Brahms set down that leaves one at a loss for words and simply glad to have ears."
[11] In 1978, he gave his debut with the
Berlin Philharmonic conducted by
Herbert von Karajan at that year's
Salzburg Festival.
[11] Reviewing a recital Lupu gave at
Avery Fisher Hall in 1980,
[37] Andrew Porter of
The New Yorker hailed Lupu as "a master of the most satisfying kind".
[11] By 1981 he had played with every major orchestra.
[11]
In June 1982, Lupu made a critically acclaimed recording of Schubert's
Impromptus (D. 899 & 935). John Rockwell wrote in
The New York Times that Lupu's "singing tone here must be heard to be believed. Without belittling the other facets of Schubert's musical personality, he captures the composer's songful essence with a rare beauty – and, in so doing, he reaffirms once more the ability of present-day performers to do ample justice to the music of the past."
[38] In addition,
Gramophone said about the recording:
[39]
Quote:To all eight pieces he brings insights all his own betokening acute awareness of the visionary in Schubert, while as piano playing pure and simple it could scarcely be lovelier in phrasing or tone. When first confronting this return to already over-recorded pieces my immediate reaction, I confess, was Why yet another? I now realize the catalogue would not have been complete without the viewpoint of so dedicated a Schubertian.
In 1989, Lupu was awarded the
Franco Abbiati Prize by the Italian Critics' Association; he was awarded the prize again in 2006.
[40][41] In 1995, he won an
Edison Award for his album of
Schumann's
Kinderszenen (Op. 15),
Kreisleriana (Op. 16) and
Humoreske (Op. 20) which was also nominated for a
Grammy Award.
[42][43] In the
Grammy Awards of 1995, he won a
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for his album of Schubert's Piano Sonatas in B-flat major (D. 960) and
A major (D. 664).
[43]
In 2006, Lupu was awarded the Premio Internazionale Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and in 2016 was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2016 New Year Honours for services to music.
[44]
In June 2019, Lupu's agent announced that the pianist would retire from the concert stage at the end of the 2018–2019 season.
[45][46][47]
Lupu at
Symphony Center in Chicago, 2010
Lupu used a regular, straight-backed
[4][48] chair at the piano as opposed to a standard piano bench.
[2] He told
Clavier in 1981 that while sitting on a bench he tended to lean forward, raise his shoulders, become impossibly stiff and develop pains all over. He also said that he practiced with a chair at home and found it natural for him.
[11] Although Lupu was an admirer of the pianism of
Arthur Rubinstein and
Vladimir Horowitz, he named
Mieczysław Horszowski as having the largest influence on his playing, saying that Horszowski "speaks to me like no one else". Lupu's initial approach to new music was to read it away from the piano, saying that he "reads more easily away from the instrument" and that "it is the only way to learn".
[11] Lupu said in regards to
tone production that "everything in music comes from the head', adding: "If you have any concept of sound, you hear it in your inner ear. All you have to work for is to match that sound on the instrument. The whole balance, the line, the tone, is perceived and controlled by the head." He further described tone production as a "matching process for which [one] practices", and the physical contact of the keyboard as "a very individual thing determined by the color or timbre you hear and try to get, the piece you are playing, the phrase".
[11]
Lupu's playing garnered admiration not only from music critics, but also by fellow major artists.
Mitsuko Uchida told
Humphrey Burton in a 2002
BBC Radio 3 interview that "there is nobody on earth who can actually get certain range of colour, and also the control – don't underestimate this unbelievable control of his playing."
[49] Nikolai Lugansky said in an interview that Lupu "possesses the rare power of letting the music speak for itself",
[50] and
András Schiff stated that Lupu had the "rare gift to illuminate anything that he plays with rare musical intelligence".
[3] Other pianists who expressed admiration for Lupu or cited him as an inspiration in their music-making include
Emanuel Ax,
Daniel Barenboim,
Seong-Jin Cho (who named Lupu's recording of the Schubert Impromptus as his favourite),
[51] Kirill Gerstein,
Stephen Hough,
Robert Levin,
Maria João Pires,
[52] and
Daniil Trifonov.
[53] In addition, the conductor
Yannick Nézet-Séguin cited Lupu as an inspiration while he was a piano student, saying that listening to recitals and recordings by Lupu "shaped my conception of sound from a very young age", and the cellist
Steven Isserlis called him "one of the greatest artists I have ever heard or known".
[3]
In the span of 23 years, Lupu made over 20 recordings for
Decca Records. His first recording was made in the spring of 1970. Lupu's solo recordings, which have received considerable acclaim, include works by
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Grieg,
Mozart,
Schubert, and
Schumann. His solo recordings without orchestra include 5 Beethoven piano sonatas (Opp. 13, 27/2, 49, and 53), as well as Beethoven's
two rondos for piano (Op. 51) and
32 Variations in C minor; Brahms'
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor (Op. 5),
Two Rhapsodies (Op. 79),
Intermezzi (Op. 117),
6 Pieces for Piano (Op. 118) and
4 Pieces for Piano (Op. 119); nine piano sonatas of Schubert (D. 157, 557, 664, 784, 845, 894, 958, 959, 960) as well as the
Impromptus (D. 899, 935) and
Moments musicaux (D. 780); and Schumann's
Humoreske (Op. 20),
Kinderszenen (Op. 15) and
Kreisleriana (Op. 16). His concerto recordings include the complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Zubin Mehta; the
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 (Op. 15) with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Edo de Waart; the Grieg and Schumann piano concertos with the
London Symphony Orchestra and
André Previn; and two Mozart piano concertos (K. 414 and 467) with the
English Chamber Orchestra conducted by
Uri Segal. His chamber music recordings for Decca include all of Mozart's sonatas for violin and piano with
Szymon Goldberg; the violin sonatas of
Debussy and
Franck with
Kyung Wha Chung; the quintets for piano and winds of Beethoven (Op. 16) and Mozart (K. 452) with
Han de Vries,
George Pieterson,
Vicente Zarzo, and Brian Pollard;
[54] and various works by Schubert for violin and piano with Goldberg. He additionally recorded works of Mozart and Schubert for piano four-hands and two pianos with
Murray Perahia for the
CBS Masterworks, two albums of Schubert songs with
Barbara Hendricks for
EMI, and a disc of works by Schubert for piano four-hands with
Daniel Barenboim for
Teldec.
[23][25]
In addition to the composers he has recorded, Lupu is also noted for his performances of
Bartók,
[55][56] Enescu,
[57] and
Janáček.
[3][58]
Lupu's first wife was the cellist Elizabeth Wilson (born 1947), daughter of diplomat Sir (Archibald) Duncan Wilson, whom he married in 1971.
[59][60] He resided in
Lausanne, Switzerland with his second wife Delia, a violinist in the
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.
[16]
For most of his career, Lupu regularly refused to grant interviews to the press
[61] out of "fear of being misunderstood or misquoted".
[2] His aversion to the press and publicity has prompted them to label him as "the reclusive Radu Lupu",
[4] with
The Independent referring to him as a "woolly recluse" and "like someone dragged unwillingly into the concert hall but asked to leave his begging-bowl outside."
[61] In addition, Lupu usually did not allow radio broadcasts of his performances.
[62] In 1994,
Chicago Tribune noted that Lupu's press kit then contained one single interview he granted to the
Clavier magazine in 1981. Other published interviews include a "conversation" that Lupu granted to
Clavier in 1992
[2] and an interview from 1975 that was aired on
BBC Radio 3.
[63]
Lupu died in
Lausanne, after a long illness, on 17 April 2022, aged 76.
[64]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radu_Lupu