“It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Maestro Radu Lupu, a dear friend of the Enesco festival and a magnificent musician”, wrote the organizers of the George Enesco Festival in Bucharest in a message posted Monday evening on their Facebook page. “We will forever cherish his extraordinary way of turning music into magic,” they continue, specifying that the pianist had won in 1967 the Grand Prix of the festival, created nine years earlier in homage to the Romanian composer George Enesco.
Born November 30, 1945 in Galati, Romania, Radu Lupu began studying the piano at the age of six, before being admitted to the Bucharest Conservatory and then obtaining a scholarship to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Messy hair and full beard, the musician who played seated on a chair with a back and not on a stool won his first competition – Van Cliburn – in 1966, followed by those in Bucharest (1967) and Leeds (1969).
He made his debut in the United States in 1971 with the Cleveland Orchestra, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, then continued with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and that of San Francisco. A sensitive interpreter of Schumann, Brahms, Mozart or Beethoven, he plays under the baton of renowned conductors, including Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta and Lawrence Foster.
The musician gave almost no interviews and had been fleeing the studios since the 1990s. Despite the Grammy Award for best solo instrumental performance won in 1996 for his recording of Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata in B flat major and A major.
Based in Switzerland, he ended his career at the end of the 2018/2019 season, for health reasons. According to the media, the artist died in Lausanne, Switzerland, following a long illness. “He will remain a sublime and unique artist, perhaps too little known in Romania, an unequaled musical genius”paid tribute to him by the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu.
Deeply saddened by the death of legendary pianist and my dear compatriot, Radu Lupu. Wonderful to have spent great moments together with Radu over the years, a sublime and unique artist, perhaps too little known in Romania, but an unsurpassable musical genius of this world (1/2) pic.twitter.com/WdOfjh14d6
— Angela Gheorghiu (@angelagheorghiu) April 18, 2022