Radu Lupu - Radu Lupu plays Brahms (2005)

Longtime fans of reclusive Romanian pianist Radu Lupu will no doubt already know his handful of recordings of Brahms' piano music made in the '70s and early '80s for Decca – his recklessly imperious F minor Sonata, romantically dramatic D minor Concerto, inwardly brooding D minor Variations, and richly autumnal late rhapsodies, ballades, and intermezzos. But fans of Brahms' piano music who don't already know Lupu's recordings will be overwhelmed by what they'd heretofore missed. Lupu's full, round tone, his effortless virtuosity, his poetic intensity, and his soulful expressivity combine in unified performances of consummate artistry.

There's a tragic strength to his sonata, a fateful power to his concert, and a mature wisdom to his late intermezzos that equals the great Brahms players of the past – the magisterial Claudio Arrau, the titanic Sviatoslav Richter, the commanding Wilhelm Kempff – and assures Lupu's place among the most compelling Brahms pianists of all time. It must be added that the young Edo de Waart and the London Philharmonic Orchestra are an inspired choice to accompany Lupu in the concerto, matching him in the opening Maestoso, supporting him in the central Adagio, and driving him relentlessly forward in the closing Allegro non troppo. It must further be added that Decca's stereo piano sound is lush and lovely. And it must finally be added, albeit somewhat superfluously, that fans of piano music who don't already know Radu Lupu or his Brahms recordings will be blown away by these recordings.