I confess that in 2012 I knew absolutely nothing of the violin player Răzvan Stoica. He sent me an album to listen to and I just adored his mastery, his beautiful sound and certainly the fact that he was playing a Stradivarius violin, which he won following a contest where 180 competitors fought for it. Toward the end of the year 2012, I remembered him when we, Radio Romania Music, were thinking which young player to propose for the contest New Talent of Bratislava, developed under the patronage of European Broadcasting Union. In October, 2013, Răzvan Stoica won the only award offered at this important international contest, which is a great pride for Romania, because no Romanian had ever obtained such a prestigious award at this contest founded 40 years ago by Yehudi Menuhin.

After the 27 year-old Razvan Stoica had won this contest, he became famous also in Romania, which he had left at 18 to study at Amsterdam, where he established himself and won a good fame. For many years Răzvan Stoica has played in a duo with his sister, the piano player Andreea Stoica, a musician of high class. And in 2010, Răzvan Stoica set up Kamerata Stradivarius, a chamber orchestra made of practicaly only elite artists who play with no conductor.

Răzvan Stoica, Andreea Stoica, and the Kamerata Stradivarius meet for the first time on a CD of which inauguration is scheduled on 25^th September, 2015, a Universal Music Romania production, named A Journey into Classical. The title is inspired by a real story from Răzvan Stoica's life, told also in the album's booklet: 'We have a wonderful original orchestration and I truly believe in this project. I have dreamt for many years to combine a musical arrangement for violin, piano and cord orchestra, into a surprising repertoire. Emotions, dreams and music form a perfect synergy, this is a proved fact. I chose some of my favourite concert plays and I used them as sources of inspiration to create a magical musical journey. Every play on this album has its own story. Why this journey into classical? The story that brought this project to life originates from a real event. At the end of a big concert that I had with my sister (the other half of the Stoica Duo), a beautiful old lady in a wheelchair came to us. She asked us when we were going to have a new concert in the same region. Due to her handicap, she could not be able to arrive in time and she missed the concert. She had tears in her eyes while she was speaking to us. Both I and my sister felt the responsibility of our performance as artists and repeated the concert only for that beautiful lady. She was so happy, she could utter no word. But when she finally spoke, she said something amazing that made us feel unbelievably overwhelmed and in the same time complete artists. She said: 'This was the journey of my life…', and this marked the start of our new project, A Journey into Classical.

Yes, there is a life story in these eight famous plays from the classical repertoire - Paganini, Fauré, Bazzini, Piazzolla, Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Lalo, and Ravel are the composers. A life story, which can be not only emotional but full of humour and relaxing as well. We thought this album for the large public who can choose to listen to it also for their aesthetic and artistic satisfaction and, why not, simply for relaxation in the traffic jam in the big cities, for instance. It is an album that emphasizes the exceptional qualities of both the artist and the instrument, which he plays: a Stradivarius violin with a dark timbre and a violin player who beyond a sparkling technical mastery transmits a special emotion. And music is first of all emotion....

Răzvan Stoica and Andreea Stoica are the guests of Radio Romania Music's on Tuesday, 22^nd September, at 19.00, a radio show that is broadcasted live at the radio and also online on the www.en.romania-muzical.ro website. The album A journey into classical is also included within the Vote the best classical album of 2015 campaign on the same website, www.en.romania-muzical.ro.

The inaugural concert of the album A journey into classical takes place Friday, 25^th September, at 20.00, at the Bragadiru Palace in Bucharest. Tickets are available within the www.eventim.ro network.