International Piano Magazine

On the cover of the Winter issue of International Piano is the great pianist Radu Lupu, who died in 2022 at the age of 76 and who would have celebrated his 80th birthday in November. To mark this anniversary, Decca has released a six-disc box-set of previously unissued recordings, containing unreleased Decca masters as well as radio broadcasts featuring repertoire the Lupu never recorded commercially. In our cover feature, Geraint Lewis reviews this set, setting these recordings in the context of Lupu’s career and pianism.
Mark Ainley, Kenneth Hamilton and Jeremy Nicholas contribute regular columns, while Farhan Malik continues his survey of great Soviet pianists with a survey of the life and work of Yakov Flier. For our Repertoire Guide, marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, Ateș Orga has been listening to the available recordings of Ravel’s five-movement cycle Miroirs, and he recommends his favourite versions.
We report from two major piano competitions: Jed Distler writes from the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and Thomas May had been to Calgary for the Honens Competition. We also have two Personal Touch features this issue: Andrey Gugnin writes compellingly about his new Hyperion album of Russian ballet suites by Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, and Clare Hammond introduces her BIS album of 20th-century English piano concertos. Murray McLachlan continues his ‘Nuts & Bolts’ educational series with advice on how to play repeated notes. Our extensive reviews coverage offers perceptive assessments of new albums – covering a large number at this busy time of year, with the best receiving the accolade of International Piano Choice – and includes Nigel Simeone’s round-up of recent issues that you might otherwise have missed. Finally, our live reviews coverage includes a report from the London Piano Festival.