Sherban Lupu | Divine Art Recordings

Divine Art Recordings is delighted to announce a forthcoming album of musical and historical importance, which presents first-ever recordings of works by the great Belgian composer Eugène Ysaÿe, whose known violin works are masterpieces of their genre. Fronting the album is Romanian violinist Sherban Lupu, who has been for almost ten years avidly researching the unpublished manuscripts left by Ysaÿe. All the works here are receiving their first recordings; it should be noted that the Violin Concerto here is NOT the same work (also recently rediscovered) which has been recorded by Nikita Boriso-Glebsky.

The production of this album originated from Sherban Lupu’s tribute to the great 20th century violin teacher Joseph Gingold, who made significant contributions to violin teaching in the United States. Gingold was a pupil of Ysaÿe during his stay in Belgium from 1927 to 1930 and Lupu studied with Gingold in his studio at Indiana University in the 1970s.

In 2012, Lupu started his journey to discover Ysaÿe’s remaining manuscripts by visiting the libraries of Brussels and Liège, the main libraries containing most of his personal archives. He found some very interesting things in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, though the main sources of this album were discovered in the library of The Royal Conservatoire of Liège. Lupu edited the pieces on this album out of the manuscripts, adding fingerings and bowings, and readied them for performance use. This album is a result of several years of effort by Lupu, similar to previous contributions he has made to the Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu, the dedicatee of Ysaye’s Sonata no.3, “Ballade” for solo violin.

One of the world’s leading performers of George Enescu’s music, Sherban Lupu is professor emeritus of violin at the University of Illinois and has been artistic director of the Gubbio Festival in Italy. Solo appearances include The Kennedy Center, Gstaad Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Berlin Philharmonic Hall and Carnegie Hall. He has also performed the Brahms and Tchaikovsky violin concertos in live broadcasts with the BBC Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Northern Israeli Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Lupu has published eight volumes of previously unknown works for violin by George Enescu. The works were discovered, edited, and arranged by Sherban Lupu. Since December 2011 Mr. Lupu has been President of the George Enescu Society of the United States.

In addition to concert tours and masterclasses Mr. Lupu is presently pursuing several other recording projects, such as the complete works for violin by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst.