Cristina Radu News
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2024-04-23
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2024-01-29 04:30:00
The Muse (Piano Music by Brahms)
[…] ten-feet-wide keyboards here. Moreover, the full range is present, the lower registers with incredible weight; just listen to the resonances in the solemn low notes at the beginning of the second Rhapsody. (It helps if you have speakers with real dynamic capability.) Gvetadze’s fine control of dynamics, which I mentioned as one of her expressive strengths, comes through unscathed. Is the sonic presentation such a big deal? Well, I think it is. Compare, for example, Radu Lupu’s playing in the Rhapsodies. There’s no doubt that the playing is awesome (in the full sense of that overused word). But the recorded sound is, by today’s standards, tubby and overly reverberant, detracting from the sheer enjoyment of listening. (I wonder if Lupus’s great Brahms recording might one day be remastered?) That’s a somewhat extreme example, but it’s just easier and downright more fun to listen to the newer recording. In the end, […]
2023-12-18 15:57:45
Three Pianists, December 2023
This Week in Classical Music: December 18, 2023. Three Pianists. During the last month, we were preoccupied with composers and completely ignored the performers, who bring their music to the public. So today we bring you three wonderful pianists: Radu Lupu, a Romanian, Mitsuko Uchida, born in Japan, and András Schiff, a British-Hungarian. All three belong to the same generation: Lupu was born in 1945 (on November 30th), Uchida in 1948 (on December 20th), and Schiff – in 1953, on December 21st. Uchida and Schiff are still performing, Lupu died on April 17th of last year. Radu Lupu is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of his time. He studied in Moscow with Heinrich Neuhaus, who also taught Richter and Gilels. In the three years from 1966 to 1969, he won three major piano competitions, the Cliburn, the Enescu, and the Leeds, and embarked on an international career with successful […]
2022-06-19 06:03:00
Bartók and Respighi at SFS
Esa-Pekka SalonenPhoto by Minna Hatinen, courtesy of San Francisco SymphonyTo San Francisco Symphony last night for the next-to-last program of the 2021-22 season, one I'd looked forward to for months, because there was the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 1, which I could not remember have heard live, and which is a great favorite of mine. As it turned out, SFS hadn't played it since 1994, back in the Blomsted era, which surprised the hell out of me. I think that I heard Yuja Wang play the 2nd concerto in 2011 and I know that I've heard the 3rd live a couple of times, once with Hélène Grimaud, once in NYC with Radu Lupu and Cincy. ANYWAY. The soloist was Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a formidable pianist in 20th and 21st century music and a player of great technical skill, the conductor was Esa-Pekka Salonen, and so I had high hopes.Well, um. I was not happy […]
2022-04-28 00:37:45
[…] Shriver Hall for the first concert,more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts andpremieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season. The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, ClevelandQuartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing importantmusicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier,Jonathan Leshnoff, James […]
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