The opening concert of the 11^th edition of the "Chopin and his Europe" International Music Festival is broadcast live starting at 21:00.

The series of international live broadcasts continues on Radio Romania Music on Saturday, 15^th August, 2015. At 21:00, you will listen to both Chopin's Concerts with Nikolai Lugansky as a soloist, credits to The European Stage programme.

The Russian pianist will be onstage along with the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov. Actually, the artists will not be playing these scores for the first time as they recorded an album issued by Naive records label in 2014, in the same formula.

From the interview Nikolai Lugansky exclusively gave to Radio Romania Music - and that you could listen to during the intermission of the performance - we firstly found out that he hadn't actually studied The Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, the artist's favourite one, until he entered adulthood; the score of The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor on the other hand, has been part of Lugansky's repertoire ever since his teenage years.

As a matter of fact, when asked what he would have performed during the Chopin Competition finale in case he participated in, Nikolai Lugansky confessed it would have been a difficult choice to make, but, from a practical point of view, he would have probably chosen The Concert No. 2 in F minor which he had known really well for a long time.

Both concerts for piano were composed shortly before Chopin's leaving his native country, so they bore the spirit of Polish music which we would most definitely get the taste of in Nikolai Lugansky's performance.

Saturday evening will mark the opening of the 11^th edition of the "Chopin and his Europe" International Music Festival, an event which is included in the "Before the competition" series at the moment, as it precedes the "Chopin" piano competition in October.

The European Stage brings Frédéric Chopin's music in the foreground on Saturday, 15^th August, 2015, at 21:00; a live broadcast and real-time comments by Irina Cristina Vasilescu.