although schonberg had been critical of lupu's debut with the cleveland orchestra conducted by barenboim in february 1972, he was far more enthusiastic of lupu's performance in november 1972 of beethoven's piano concerto no. 5 with the royal philharmonic orchestra conducted by lawrence foster at carnegie hall, writing, in "the new york times", that "his performance did much to redeem the impression he had made last season in the brahms d minor concerto. then he sounded mannered, finicky, artificial. this time he was a different pianist." schonberg added:the following year, lupu recorded the piano concertos of schumann (op. 54) and grieg (op. 16) with the london symphony orchestra conducted by andré previn, a recording described by "gramophone" as "grandly commanding". in february 1974, lupu performed a recital at hunter college in new york, which was raved by john rockwell of "the new york times". rockwell declared lupu "no ordinary pianist" and wrote about lupu's performance of schubert's piano sonata in b-flat major (d. 960):in november 1974, lupu made his debut with the new york philharmonic, performing mozart's piano concerto no. 21 (k. 467) conducted by james conlon. in 1975, lupu debuted with the royal concertgebouw orchestra and gave the premiere of the andré tchaikowsky piano concerto, op. 4 with the royal philharmonic orchestra conducted by uri segal at the royal festival hall. in 1976, lupu recorded brahms' 6 klavierstücke (op. 118) and 4 klavierstücke (op. 119), which was described by "stereo review" as "a glowing realization of what brahms set down that leaves one at a loss for words and simply glad to have ears." in 1978, he gave his debut with the berlin philharmonic conducted by herbert von karajan at that year's salzburg festival. reviewing a recital lupu gave at avery fisher hall in 1980, andrew porter of the new yorker hailed lupu as "a master of the most satisfying kind". by 1981 he had played with every major orchestra.