Customer Reviews

Schubert: 9 Piano Sonatas / Moments Musicaux

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I have been listening to this set continuously since it arrived several weeks ago. Although I have been familiar with these pieces for many years, each hearing brought fresh awareness of both the composer's genius, and of Lupu's incredible musicality. Even the Moments Musicaux, often derided as "Schubet Light", are transformed here to something magical and deeply beautiful.
I can well understand why Amazon says there is only 1 set left right now. You will be entranced.

Released by DECCA as a celebratory bow for the 60th anniversary of Radu Lupu, this Schubert CD box set comprises recordings made for this label by the great Romanian pianist over more than twenty years, since his emerging on international concert platform in early 1970s. Coming with three first prizes won in prestigious international piano competitions (Van Cliburn - 1966, Enescu - 1967, Leeds - 1969) Lupu rapidly established himself as one of the top performing artists with a pronounced affinity for the classical-romantic repertoire. His refined craftsmanship seems especially suited to those lovely singing melodies and delicate moods embodied in Schubert's sonatas, impromptus, scherzos and moments musicaux. Yet Lupu hates self promotion and publicity, being widely regarded as a genuine anti-star, his arrival as one of the most acclaimed and sought-after musicians of our time has covered him by flattering engagements with most impressive concert stages and orchestras around the world.

Radu Lupu's pianism has frequently been characterized as full of delicacy, exhibiting a pure romantic insight and a compelling sense of narration, kindling uneven poetic colours and masterful contrasts out of his keyboard. All that artistry - copiously flowing throughout sonatas and other pieces gathered here - is possible by simply relying on two features of Lupu's way of playing: 1) flawless technical skills engrafted onto a full-range sensitivity (mainly that crystal-clear conception and finger-work leading to his immediately recognizable touch, praised by Daniel Barenboim as "unmatched aural imagination and ability to create orchestral sonorities and textures"), and 2) an unfailing curiosity for the depths of the scores (where he finds solid arguments in order to build-up the adequate atmosphere of a certain piece, with a special care for details).

Deliberately, I won't make here any nominations or comments on a particular work on these records. They were recorded at various moments in Lupu's career, on different instruments, in different halls, with - evidently - different soul dispositions, but each of them seems to convey something very deep and unique. As a whole, all these renditions (along with that wonderful CD devoted exclusively to Impromptus and not included in this compilation) offer a faithful image of the evolution of this special pianist's approach to Schubert repertoire.

I honestly do consider this CD box set as a must for all who love Schubert piano music and are interested in fine accounts of it. Radu Lupu's are among the very few authentic and valuable ones on the market now. In my own collection it secured for itself a first rank place, a kind of crown pearl among other sparkling jewels. And that is not only for Lupu has - temporarily, I hope - retired from recording studios, but also for the intense and natural musicianship these records breathe. Don't miss this marvel at an affordable price.

Intelligent, sensitive phrasing, and a wonderful ability to sustain Schubert's melodic line. Without fussiness or excess sentiment, Lupu has given us some fine recordings of this inexpressibly beautiful music.

I have always been a fan of Lupu's Schubert. Some here are not, and that's OK: we live in an era blessed with an appreciation of Schubert's piano sonatas and other keyboard works. We are also blessed with a handful of truly great Schubert pianists. Historically neither was true until the early 20th Century. Schubert's sonatas were rarely played - and not thought too highly of - until Artur Schnabel brought them to prominence.

In my opinion the greatest living Schubert pianists are Radu Lupu, Maurizio Pollini, Alfred Brendel and Stephen Kovacevich. I don't feel it necessary to rank them in order, and I have not done so. Each brings something special to Schubert. If you are not familiar with Radu Lupu, and you love Schubert, you owe it to yourself to experience these recordings.

That being said, while I love his recordings, I refuse to attend his recitals. I've attended quite a few in the past and each left me quite disappointed. I don't think he likes performing for a live audience - and it shows. He appears awkward, withdrawn, disinterested. He plays with a strange metricality that is very off-putting. I'm not sure what that is all about, but his Schubert recordings are magical! There his heart and his art shows.

I was overjoyed to discover that Decca finally released most of Lupu's Schubert Sonatas in one single package (the only exception being Sonata in D major, D 850 recorded in Bucharest in 1981). Lupu is my favorite living piano player. In my humble opinion, no one can even match, let alone surpass, the wonderful tone and the countless colors and shades he is capable of getting out of his instrument.

For those of you unfamiliar with his career and achievements, here are some highlights: began studying the piano at the age of six making his public debut with a complete program of his own music at age 12. Several years of intense studying with Florica Muzicescu followed - she is renowned for nurturing many other extraordinary talents such as Mindru Katz, Maria Fotino and of course, the most famous one, Dinu Lipatti. According to Lory Wallfisch's recollections (another of her students), Ms. Muzicescu was responsible for instilling in her pupils a desire and passion of seeking almost unattainable degrees of perfection. She was very demanding about tone production, stressing that the maximum sound should never be harsh and that, as a rule, the pianissimo must not be superficial. I addition, she always stressed the importance of obtaining a singing tone quality, pointing out that Romanian was the only language in which you "sing the piano" rather than "play the piano", as in French, German or Italian.

This was followed by seven years of studying at the Moscow Conservatory. This solid foundation, coupled with abundant talent and countless hours of hard study, resulted in the many prizes that were to follow. The list includes winning the prestigious Van Cliburn (1966), G. Enescu (1967) and Leeds (1969) international piano competitions. Lupu's first major American appearances were in 1972 with Cleveland Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim in New York and with the Chicago Symphony led by Carlo Maria Giulini. Since then Lupu performed regularly with all the major orchestras of Europe and North America, establishing himself as a leading interpreter of the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and especially Schubert.

The present release - following more than twenty others for Decca and Sony, including the Schubert's Sonatas D 960 and 664 that won a Grammy Award in 1995, firmly establishes Radu Lupu as one of the most important and respected musicians of his generation. Highly recommended before it gets out of print.

Radu Lupu (1945) may boast of being actually one of the maxim exponents in which concerns to be among the best interpreters of Franz Schubert.

This extraordinary set should be labeled as sublime, because he make us to realize ourselves Schubert is a dramatists rather than a lyricist, he underlines too the rhythmic metamorphosis of melodies, the cohesiveness of its drama sense, precise modulations, remarking besides, the demanded juxtapositions of major and minor keys that integrate and define the interplay of shade and light and unexpected shifting of perspective. The level of technique perfection is under the service of the febrile poetry of this composer. And I would like emphasize these features, because just a few pianists around the world are capable to play a Schubert with such grandness and accuracy..

Don' t hesitate just a second. This should be personal must in your invaluable musical collection. Go for this treasured and rewarding album.

I am a non-fan of Radu Lupu, an elusive pianist who makes few recordings. Those he does make are greeted with extraordinary adoration in England, leaving me baffled, just as I am baffled by Andras Schiff and Solomon, two other keyboard gods in the UK (and elsewhere, of course). To my ears, Lupu has two modes in this CD. Most of the time he's rhtyhmically brittle and emotionally aloof, except for when he decides to punch out chords in a lumpish, hard-edged fashion (as in the opening of the A major sonata D. 959). After years of trying to like it, I still find his way with Schubert completely lacking in charm.

Having stated the case for the loyal (if tiny) opposition, I can leave this box set of Lupu's collected Schubert recordings -- done in unpleasantly hard, close-up sound -- to the true believers. As one can see, they are the vast majority at Amazon, and to be fair, among music reviewers, too. In a pluralistic culture one can afford to pick and choose. For Schubert I choose Schnabel, Pollini, Richter, and here and there Perahia, Uchida, Serkin, and two young rising stars, Jonathan Biss and Paul Lewis, which leaves some esteemed Schubert pianists, including Brendel, schiff, and Lupu, out of the running.

P.S. Jan 2011 -- I see that a Top Ciritc, J. Scott Morrison, has just written that he was converted to Schubert's piano sonatas, after a lifetime of dislike or indifference, by Lupu's recordings. I stand amazed and avoid them anyway. As the exception that proves the rule, anyone who loves Lupu's playing should seek out his superb recording of the Mozart and Beethoven quintets for piano and winds -- a total delight.