Lupu uses a regular, straight-backed chair at the piano as opposed to a standard piano bench. He told "Clavier" in 1981 that while sitting on a bench he tended to lean forward, raise his shoulders, become impossibly stiff and develop pains all over. He also said that he practiced with a chair at home and found it natural for him. Although Lupu is an admirer of the pianism of Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz, he named Mieczysław Horszowski as having the most influence on his playing, saying that Horszowski "speaks to me like no one else". Lupu's initial approach to new music is to read it away from the piano, saying that he "reads more easily away from the instrument" and that "it is the only way to learn". Lupu says in regards to tone production that "everything in music comes from the head', adding: "If you have any concept of sound, you hear it in your inner ear. All you have to work for is to match that sound on the instrument. The whole balance, the line, the tone, is perceived and controlled by the head." He further describes tone production as a "matching process for which [one] practices", and the physical contact of the keyboard as "a very individual thing determined by the color or timbre you hear and try to get, the piece you are playing, the phrase".