Radu Lupu has given us some of the most memorable and moving musical experiences. Writing about music and magic is a mission equally tempting and fey. Radu’s anniversary seemed a good cue to pay homage to this great artist, recall the sensations of hearing him in concert and to consider the reasons behind his abstinence from studio recordings in the recent decades. 

For the past two decades, the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu has chosen not to record any music. He does not allow radio broadcasts of his playing, he does not give press interviews, and he has almost no social media presence. This had made his performances all the more prized. Lupu, who turns seventy on November 30, is far more than a great pianist; listening to him, my attention slips away from the beauty and mastery of his piano playing, deeply impressive though it is, with a rich palette of sound and resonance, control over chordal voicing fueled by an exceptionally refined harmonic sense, and a muscular apparatus that accurately plots into reality his imagination of the shape and timing of musical events. Soon, I find I am taken deep below and far above the surface.

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Click here to read my full article on the website of The New York Review of Books.