Radu Lupu, who retired from public performance in 2019 and passed away in 2022, was a notorious perfectionist. Relative to his long career, he seldom released new studio albums for Decca from the mid-1980s onward. A series of superb recordings emerged in the early to mid-1990s, but then — silence. In that context, this 6-CD release, sanctioned by his estate, is an intriguing discovery, especially because the repertoire itself had never been officially released by Lupu in any form.
The box is thematically grouped into two parts: Decca studio recordings (two CDs) and live radio recordings made by the BBC, Dutch Radio, and SWR. The two Decca studio discs are superb, and it remains a conundrum why they were not issued until now. Mozart’s two Piano Quartets, played with the Tel Aviv String Quartet in 1976, are among the finest performances currently in the catalogue. They follow the stylistic line familiar from Curzon, Rubinstein and (a bit later) Ax, without incorporating later “period practice” approaches. For example, listen to Lupu’s remarkable playing in the development sections of the first movements (CD 1, track 1 at 6’34” and track 4 at 6’06”), or to the group’s warm phrasing in both slow movements.
The second Decca studio recording belongs to Lupu’s Schubert Piano Sonata series. The previously released digital recording (1991) contained memorable performances of D. 664 and D. 960; here we get D. 840 (“Reliquie”) and D. 850 (“Gasteiner”). The slow movements show Lupu at his best: quietly penetrating, saying much while appearing to do very little.
A major discovery is CD 3, which includes a 1988 Haydn recital from London’s Wigmore Hall. There is slightly more caution than in his studio work and the occasional wrong note, yet the playing and interpretive insight are wonderful. Lupu’s technical command is evident in the final movement of the C Minor Sonata (CD 3, track 7), taken at a faster pace than usual.
The same disc also includes a recording of Mozart’s “facile” Sonata, K. 545, taped in Aldeburgh in 1970, shortly after Lupu’s Leeds Competition win. He already emerges as a fully formed musician, though the second movement is briefly disrupted by a memory lapse, which he bypasses cleverly. Schumann’s Études Symphoniques, recorded live in 1991, demonstrate Lupu’s virtuosity, meeting the work’s formidable demands while conveying its dark Romantic character.
CD 5 combines live Concertgebouw recordings of Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien (1983) and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1984). Both confirm Lupu as a charismatic pianist and a superb tone-painter. Note the playful Tuileries and the majestic projection of The Great Gate of Kyiv. He does so while largely respecting the original score, and apart from adding lower octaves in louder passages, avoids the kind of re-workings other pianists adopted.
Radu Lupu (image: © Reinhold Möller)
Another point of interest lies in early recordings of twentieth-century works that Lupu later dropped from his repertoire. Bartók’s Out of Doors features a wildness absent from his later playing, and Copland’s Piano Sonata is fascinating to hear with Lupu’s recognizable tone, even if he does not always sound entirely at ease with the piece. The final disc includes an engaging performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18, with a heart-warming second movement. The 1970 Leeds recordings of three Chopin works — the first Scherzo and the two Nocturnes Op. 27 — are poorly engineered, and Lupu does his best with an evidently problematic instrument.
Many of these recordings have an important place in the catalogue, and I will return to quite a few of them, especially the Mozart Piano Quartets, Haydn, Schumann, and Mussorgsky. One can only hope more discoveries will appear in future posthumous releases.
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Album Details |
|
|---|---|
| Album name | Radu Lupu – The Unreleased Recordings |
| Label | Decca |
| Catalogue No. | 4871494 |
| Artists | Radu Lupu, piano Tel Aviv String Quartet SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Kazimierz Kord (conductor |
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