The Radio Musical season continues on Wednesday, the 26th of March in 2025, with a concert offered by the Radio Chamber Orchestra, featuring cellist Răzvan Suma. On this occasion, the musician chatted with our colleague Ioana Țintea.

Răzvan Suma, Dmitri Shostakovich's Concerto No.1 is perhaps one of the most popular works of the second half of the 20th century and a milestone for any cellist. When did you first play this score?

I remember that about 15 years ago I played it twice in a row, once in Cluj and once in Brașov, I think, in the philharmonic orchestras of those cities, and I can't say that it was a tremendous attraction for this concert. However, the evolution of an artist depends very much on knowledge, age, and the experiences we have. Of course, we cannot help but draw a parallel with the social "impact" of an ex-Soviet composer. And we can draw some extraordinarily well thought-out and, of course, constructive parallels.

I've been asked why Russian composers are playing at these times, given that there are countries that simply ban them. Having read a lot about Shostakovich's life, it seems to me that he, too, was somehow oppressed, terrorized by a system. I've been reading a lot lately to get into the atmosphere a little bit, and I found it shocking that Shostakovich was, in the early period of his creation, protected by a general. I mean, he endured in the Soviet system because of the personal protection of a general. He is Russian, but he was just as affected.

Going back to my experience with Shostakovich, it is, it's true, a very demanding concerto, interesting for a soloist because he goes through so many states in a relatively short time. It goes from the Siberian steppe to the tracks of anything we can imagine, like tractors or tanks. I think it has a great fitness component for the cellist, but I'm a gym-goer so I'm used to that.

I'm also looking forward to meeting conductor Warren Green who I've played with in the past, a couple of years ago, and that was a great experience. With the Radio Chamber Orchestra, playing a concert like that is an experience in itself, because the Radio Chamber Orchestra has a fairly small contingent. The concerto is usually written for full orchestra, but recent experiences show that it can be played in any format.

I remember playing an Elgar concerto with the National Radio Orchestra, in pandemonium, of course and I remember that instead of 6 or 8 cellos, as Elgar is usually played, it was played with 3 cellos and it was one of the most beautiful experiences. So I'm looking forward to playing with the Shostakovich Chamber Orchestra No. 1.

The work, being dedicated to the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich, do you feel that there is a certain interpretative legacy linked to this different one?

Pretty much everything Shostakovich wrote for cello was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. It was not only dedicated, they worked together on everything that didn't work, although there are some statements by David Oistrah, the famous violinist for whom a violin concerto was written and the two cello concertos for Rostropovich get a fantastic mention. Rostropovich writes there, in the statement, that the cello part was not corrected at all. So it was written as Mozart wrote, as geniuses write. It seems Shostakovich had an extraordinary ability to write for stringed instruments. It was not too much trouble. I don't suppose Rostropovich... He may have told him in a friendly way that some things are almost impossible to play, but nevertheless, Rostropovich was an outstanding performer and I don't think he had much technical trouble getting out all the passages Shostakovich wrote.

How does the Shostakovich concerto relate to the other great cello concerto in your repertoire and does it give this score uniqueness?

As I said before, it is an opus that I am looking forward to very much because it is a "rediscovery" of mine. It will be a performance that has nothing to do with what I played in my first performances. This concert grew with me up to a point, and then I grew up on my own and I think I've gotten to his level. Me, as an artist, me, as a man of culture, because that's what we do, culture, music, now I think I feel ready for this kind of expression. That, at the end of the day, musical styles can be identified without any problem, but I think that the expressions that we have to bring out and bring the audience into a correct expression of the composers' art, I think that's the most important thing. I mean, not to express things that we think, because we've heard them from legends, because maybe our former teachers told us a little bit and maybe they didn't have the information (I'm blaming absolutely nobody), but now there's so much information two clicks away and you can know absolutely everything about concerts and all the history behind the musical notes.

Finally, can you share with us some of your plans for the future after the Sala Radio concert?

The CellEast Festival is coming up and we are already finished, but it is so satisfying that we have succeeded, first of all, in bringing this cello festival (the only cello festival) to perhaps the highest level. And I don't say it myself, but those who we consider to be at the highest level in Eastern Europe have said it. So, in three years of extraordinary cello experiences, with fabulous names that we have managed to bring here, we are at perhaps the peak and I hope to continue to grow. We need to grow! We're already working on the next edition in 2026; we have headliners who have confirmed to come. We're already being contacted by great soloists who want to come to our festival of all cellists - that's the spirit of cellcellists! I can't wait for it to happen!

Before this festival, I will be going to another festival in Klaipeda, the festival that also hosts the David Geringas Competition. We have a great collaboration and I think all this one between cello festivals is so helpful! We fondly remember the ArtCello Festival, which was hosted by the Romanian Radio Society here in the "Mihail Jora" concert studio. I think we are flourishing!

Radio România is with CellEast Festival and we appreciate it!