RIP Radu Lupu (76), Harrison Birtwistle (87), Nicholas Angelich (51)

[Brian]

Sorry for the triple thread, but the news broke at almost exactly the same time. Today, it appears, was just a very very bad day for classical music.

Lupu had "multiple prolonged illnesses" which had forced the cancellation of concerts even before his retirement in 2019.
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093419034/radu-lupu-celebrated-romanian-pianist-dies-at-age-76

Angelich apparently also had a long-term illness.
https://twitter.com/igorpianist/status/1516149618760953857

Birtwistle at least lived a long life and recently got to see the release of a chamber music album by the Nash Ensemble.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/18/composer-harrison-birtwistle-dies-aged-87

[Todd]

The Angelich news is quite surprising.  A bad day, no question.

[JBS]

And without knowing the news about him until just now, I happen to be listening to Angelich play Faure with Gautier Capucon (Cello Sonata 2 Op 117).

Lupu's recordings were my introduction to Schubert's piano music.

May they rest in peace.

[Florestan]

The Angelich news is quite surprising.  A bad day, no question.

+ 1 to both.

May God rest them all in peace.

[Mandryka]

I listened to Birtwistle's Punch and Judy last night, first time in many years. It's an entertaining little opera I think, it has a plot I can follow more or less, at least in the first half, and it has some music which still sounds bold and fresh to me, and many memorable and hummable tunes and foot tappable rhythms. It seems to me to work pretty well with sound only, as well as any opera can, though I certainly wouldn't mind going to a production.

I also listened to Lupu's Leeds Piano competition recital from 1969, some Schubert. I think it's his most interesting recording, very beautiful tone and full of new ideas. It's on YouTube, I have a transfer with better sound which I can share if anyone wants it.

Angelich is a pianist I've seen a few times, mostly in late 19th century music - Brahms and Schumann. I'd always assumed he was French in fact, just because of the association with the frères Capuçon. Big man, strong stage presence physically, always looking to me slightly uncomfortable.  In concert I've been most impressed by his Bach, I don't know if he commercially recorded any.

[ritter]

R.I.P all three of those distinguished artists.

As mentioned in the relevant composer thread, I find much to admire and enjoy in Birtwistle's music. A major force in late 20th century music.

With the pianists I'm less familiar with. I only have some recordings of Nicholas Angelich, in the "Martha Argerich & Friends" boxes live from Lugano (which are a treasure trove for chamber music).

I think I have no recordings by Lupu in my collection, but did see him live once. It was in Hamburg about 10 years ago, when he played Brahms' First Piano Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony under Jonathan Nott in the old Laieszhalle. He was brilliant, even if watching him was somewhat strange: he didn't use the traditional piano bench, but something that looked like a typist's ergonomic chair. It gave him the appearance of a civil servant or office worker  . As I said, his playing seemed brilliant to me (and to the whole audience, given the rapturous applause), but I must say I loathe that particular Brahms work , so I really couldn't appreciate Lupu's art as I would have wished.

[LKB]

I saw Lupu in concert decades ago. I think he had stepped in after a cancellation, and if memory serves he performed the Brahms first concerto. I can't say l remember the performance as such, unfortunately.

May he and the others rest well.

[LKB]

... I must say I loathe that particular Brahms work , so I really couldn't appreciate Lupu's art as I would have wished.

Any particular reason for your dislike of the concerto? Do you dislike the Second concerto as well? ( I'm just curious, it's of no real importance if you don't wish to elaborate. )

[ritter]

I have more tolerance for the Second Concerto, yes, with its elegiac beginning. But the bombast of the First I can't stand! It makes the Ride if the Valkyries sound like a Chopin nocturne...

But in general, I have a problem with Brahms; as I've said some time ago, he's a a man that has everything I usually admire in a composer, and yet there are very, very few pieces of his I enjoy (perhaps the symphonies and the Saint Anthony Variations are among those few). Either his works bore me to tears (e.g. the Alto Rhapsody), they irritate me (the Second Piano Concerto), or —strange at it may seem— simultaneously bore and irritate me (A German Requiem is a particular bête noire of mine). You can't like it all, can you? 

Good evening, Andrei!

[DavidW]

The first thing I think of when I think of Lupu is his exceptional Schubert recordings.

[André]

Angelich was to play the Emperor concerto in Montreal this coming April 29, but an announcement was made as early as last December that Paul Lewis was replacing him. I guess he must have been seriously ill for a cancelation to be announced so much ahead of the actual event.

One of my most vivid concert memories is of Lupu playing the Grieg concerto way back in 1973. The conductor was Aldo Ceccato, who after intermission conducted Tchaikovsky's second symphony. Although both works are sometimes dismissed as second rate stuff, the whole program was cracking with musical electricity. I heard Lupu a couple of times in the following decades, but was not as impressed. He seemed to have withdrawn in some kind of emotionally controlled bubble.

[greg]

Radu Lupu? This.
Great recording. His legend will live on.  0:)

[staxomega]

I am pretty stunned to hear this news, I've greatly enjoyed the output from all three of these musicians/composer. I suppose with Lupu this was to be expected, even though he kept his private life quite guarded, to abruptly cancel concerts was always worrying. As for Angelich this was truly surprising with a man of his age, I'd been hoping to hear much more Brahms and Rachmaninoff from him. I hope the 21st century will celebrate more of Birtwistle's music in recordings and concert.

I believe this is the last thing Lupu played live - very fitting, beautiful piece and one of my favorite piano works from Brahms

https://youtu.be/eBa3Q5SXTeo

[Iota]

A bad day indeed. : (

I saw Lupu a few times on London's South Bank in the early 80's, the thing that most sticks in my mind was a performance of Beethoven PC No.3 under Tennstedt, with a chamber-like sense of ensemble and understanding that at that time, I hadn't heard before in the Beethoven PC's. I think the Brahms op.117 from the Decca box was the best thing I've heard from him.

Angelich is a real shock, a pianist I have a great deal of regard for. I've never quite jumped on-board with Birtwistle, but will spin something in memoriam in the coming days.

RIP