Our station celebrates 28 years since its first broadcast on the 24th of March in 2025. This anniversary will be marked with an extraordinary recital by violinist Alexandru Tomescu at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Bucharest, starting at 8 PM on he 24th of March. The renowned performer is with me in the Radio România Muzical studio.

Good evening, Mr. Tomescu!

Good evening! It's so good to be here!

Let's start by talking about this occasion. It is the 28th anniversary of the first day of broadcasting. What does Radio România Muzical mean to you?

It means the air I breathe. Classical music is part of my existence in the most natural way possible. I remember how, when I was a child, a pupil, a student, I used to religiously buy a magazine called Tele-Radio, which had radio programs as well as television programs, and I always watched the most important programs, I would record - pirate, as it was - violinists, in particular, but also other symphonic works that I liked. And, lo and behold, the years flew... Radio România Muzical is 28 years old! It is one of the most important radio stations of the Radio România trust and its fantastic audience growth speaks volumes about the quality of the broadcasts, about the desire of the Romanian public to have access to quality music. And this is present here day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Let's talk a little bit about this recital that you are going to give. It is music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Beyond the anniversary that we have this year, I would like to know how important this composer is who... could be the same answer: "It is the air we breathe".

George Enescu said very beautifully about Bach's music that it is his daily bread and many other musicians play Bach every day, in this way, for their spiritual purification. I know about the famous cellist Pablo Casals; he played one of his cello suites every day, also for his pleasure.

Bach's music is music that I have grown up with, ever since I have known myself as a violinist, and last year I made this fantastic discovery for me; I discovered this transcription of the cello suites for violin. And all of a sudden, at the age of 47, I had in front of me a brand new score by Johann Sebastian Bach, which I will enjoy for many years to come.

Incidentally, this Bach solo violin program that I will be presenting on Monday evening will include a selection of some of the most beautiful suites written for cello and transcribed for violin. A very interesting approach to this transcription, which also honors a tradition from Bach's time - it was a matter of the day to transcribe music from one instrument to another. For example, one of the violin concertos he transcribed for the harpsichord immediately, without any problem. Because, if you think about it, if you look at the whole thing from a certain height, Bach was composing music. Period. And music can materialize in different instruments - whether it's cello, violin, or orchestra. And again, I think a striking example is his famous work "The Art of Fugue", a work deliberately left deliberately unfinished, which ends with his signature music, and a work in which, among other things, he did not mention the instrument to which it is dedicated. It is a matter that even today musicians and musicologists are still researching and experimenting and will always do so.

It's a reality we face. Now, since you were talking about this quality of classical music, I'd like to know how you see public education. Is it still a necessary thing? Do you think that the Romanian public is judicious, can they tell whether it is good quality music, whether it is a lesser sung work, or it is contemporary music, good music or less good music? How do you think the current situation of the Romanian public is?

The situation is not very bad. Of course, it has rather more conservative tastes, going back to the Romantic period, it is timidly entering the 20th century, but here I think that a very important role is played, on the one hand, by the Radio orchestras, which propose very daring programs every year, and, of course, by Radio Romania Muzical, which has exactly this mission - not only to offer the public only what they expect to listen to but also to whet their appetite to explore new areas of music. Because music has been written after Bach, Beethoven and Shostakovich. A lot was written after Enescu.

I think it's very good that there is this concern. Look, the Enescu Festival also features many works that are not necessarily part of the repertoire currently played by Romanian philharmonic orchestras and philharmonic orchestras. And, little by little, we will synchronize ourselves with what is happening in the rest of the world. On many stages abroad, the appetite and openness for 20th century music, 21st century music is greater.

Even the concert that I'm playing now with the National Radio Orchestra, Philip Glass's Seasons, was originally requested by the famous festival in France, La Folle Journée. I played it there and I can play it in Romania. It is being played for the first time with the National Radio Orchestra. It has an energy that captivates you, you can't remain indifferent to what's going on there.

I wanted to ask you: how do you relate to contemporary music and this phenomenon... beyond minimalism, for example, I'd like to know what do you usually listen to?

I can say that I grew up with contemporary music. My father, the pianist Adrian Tomescu, was very involved in bringing to life a lot of works by contemporary Romanian composers. He was also very good friends with them; they often came to our house to visit... I remember, at one point, I was playing with a jar that had some interesting things in it, some nuts, and some pieces of wood, and my father appeared desperate... "What is that? I need it for a John Cage piano piece!" I had no idea what that meant!

The late George Balint, who was my teacher at the Conservatory, used to say that, from his point of view, children should learn music starting with contemporary music, because it comes a bit more naturally to them, it seems like a game for many of them.

Yes, I realized this also when I went to various schools, as part of a pilot project in the campaign "Listen to 5 minutes of classical music" of Radio România Muzical, and we had a kind of 20-minute mini-lectures. I would talk to the kids about music, about what music meant to me when I started playing, and obviously, the kids were curious to see what a violin was like, to touch it, to pluck it and to see what the thing was, how a violin sounded. We usually played them a Bach piece at the beginning, a little bit nicer so as not to scare them too much, and then, if we saw that they liked it and that they were engaged, we would ask them "Would you like to hear something else, different from this?". And I would play them George Enescu's "The Guitarist" a completely different kind of music, much more abstract I would say. And every time, these children - all born after 2000 - said that their favorite piece was George Enescu. So, there is an extraordinary openness of young people to music, to modern one, and that's why it's wonderful that there is, among other things, this campaign of which I have the honor to be an ambassador - Listen to 5 minutes of classical music. Well, it all has to start with some homeopathic doses and then the seeds so planted have a chance to sprout.

To return to the question... I've played a lot of music written beyond the second half of the 20th century. The problem is that, in Romania, it is very often difficult to program, difficult to find partners and philharmonic organizations that say "Yes, we want to play this concert". Because there are all sorts of logistical and financial problems, materials that have to be rented, royalties that have to be paid and so on. Right now, in the relatively near future, the International New Music Week is coming up, which will also be held here, at the Radio Hall, and I'll be playing a very new work there, the ink is barely drying, by the composer Sabina Ulubeanu.

Indeed, I'm not that involved, I don't sing a work of this kind every month or every year, but it gives me great pleasure.

Also, speaking of newer works, these days a compact disc I recorded with the Transylvanian Orchestra is about to be released. The initiator of the project was Don Gavril Țărmure from Bistrița - Bistrița, the city where composer Tudor Jarda was born. We played his concert here, at the Sala Radio, and, as you can see, we recorded it with this orchestra in excellent condition. And the record will be on the market in a few days.

I can't wait to hear it! Mr. Tomescu, thank you very much for this tonic presence and for all the optimistic ideas you have given us about the current phenomenon of Romanian music - both contemporary and not-so-contemporary.