Deaths of Lupu, Angelich and Birtwistle | Dark Weekend for Classical Music

(Paris) The world of classical music experienced a dark Easter weekend, marked by the sudden deaths of two great names in the piano, Radu Lupu and Nicholas Angelich, and of composer Harrison Birtwistle.

“What an incredibly sad day in the world of music,” Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen tweeted on Monday evening after the death of the three men was announced.

“Three musical giants have passed away […] There are no more words”, added, also on Twitter, the German pianist Igor Levit.

Died at the age of 76, the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu was a legend of his instrument and marked generations of listeners with his sensitive and delicate interpretations of Schumann, Brahms, Schubert or Beethoven.

According to Swiss and Romanian media, he died on Sunday in Lausanne following a long illness.

Messy hair and full beard, the musician, who played seated on a chair with a backrest and not on a stool, was a perfectionist and discreet.

He had fled the studios since the 1990s and ended his career at the end of the 2018/2019 season for health reasons.

The American Nicholas Angelich, who died in Paris at the age of 51, was considered one of the most brilliant pianists of his generation.

” Luminous ”

He was a great interpreter of the piano works of Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt, but also composers of the XX^and century, including Messiaen, Stockhausen, Boulez or Bruno Mantovani.

The Orchester Métropolitain de Montréal reacted on Twitter by mentioning its great sadness to see a close collaborator and friend leave us and by offering its condolences to his loved ones.

“Like your sound, you were luminous and tender at the same time […] I will never play a Brahms note again without being near you,” French violinist Renaud Capuçon tweeted.

Nicholas Angelich suffered from a respiratory illness which had kept him away from the stage since June 2021, his agent, Jacques Thelen, said when announcing his death.

Finally, Harrison Birtwistle, who died at the age of 87, was one of Britain’s leading composers of contemporary music, his work ranging from chamber music to opera.

He died at his home in Mere, south-west England, his publisher, Boosey & Hawkesn, announced on Monday.

Birtwistle had composed his first opera, Punch and Judyin the late 1960s. Among his greatest hits are Gawain and The mask of Orpheus.

In 1975 he was appointed musical director of the fledgling Royal National Theater in London, a position he held until 1983.

While unanimously recognized as groundbreaking, his uncompromising, dissonant style has also at times divided critics and audiences alike.