The musician is on his first solo tour, entitled "Maestro", from March 31st to April 5th, 2025

Mr. Liviu Prunaru, from March 31 to April 5, you will be on your first solo tour - a series of recitals celebrating your 50 years of career and you meet again with the Romanian public.

I wanted to celebrate this in a different manner, because I've already had many solo concerts with orchestras, chamber recitals with violin and piano, as well as the duo and trio formulas. However, this manner of playing alone on the stage is a new for me too, because I've never done it so far, as I've always avoided this virtuoso side of the violin. That is why I had to think a little bit about the program and I can tell you that it is very beautiful and diverse; and it doesn't only include virtuoso pieces but also other types of pieces.

Over the time you have activated as a soloist, professor, chamber music interpret (here I would mention the "Duel of the violins" tour, which you have been conducting for 12 years now together with the violinist Gabriel Croitoru and the pianist Horia Mihail), but also as a concertmaster of one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world - The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Which of these roles do you prefer the most and you think that brought you the most rewordings?

I have to mention that I practically never thought about this role of concertmaster; it's something that simply happened and I am very glad it did. Why? Because through this position I managed to discover a different facet of serving music.

In terms of which role I prefer, I always enjoy the one I'm in at that particular moment, and it changes with every apparition. However I am glad I can have this multitude of facets because I feel that If I stayed with only one of them, I would have been somehow limited.

So I enjoy this variety of apparitions in which I can perform freely - as a partner in chamber music, as a leader of an orchestra, but also as a soloist - and now another role that I would like to try, as the only musician on the stage, as a soloist.

Coming back to the tour, you've chosen a program that includes works which are at the base of the repertoire for solo violin, such as Sonata No.1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, but also 6 of the 24 Caprices by Paganini, but not the ones that are usually played. I know that you like to bring works that are rarely performed to the public's attention, so I would like to ask you what aspects did you have in mind when you elaborated the program?

It was quite a detailed research because somehow, I didn't want to offer only and only virtuosity and I wanted not to make the public fall asleep. It has been, it still is and it will be a journey through styles, which will experience many emotion changes, respectively, we will to pass from classicism, from that cathedral format, to Paganini. I will perform 3 Caprices by Paganini which are rarely performed; those Caprices before the twelfth are usually much more difficult to perform than those in the second half. That is why I chose and I wanted 3 Caprices from the first half and 3 from the second one. I have also included, of course, famous Caprices such as "The Chase", or Caprice no. 13 named "The Devil's Laughter", which I will try to perform in a different way than the diabolical one. All these Caprices will show also the virtuosity, of course, but I've also chosen lyrical Caprices, such as, Caprice no. 2, which, apart from being very technical, it does the transition between Bach's music and Paganini's, because the listener will simply believe that I am still playing Bach, when in fact I will have switched to one of Paganini's Caprices. I found this transition very interesting, which is why I included it.

Among these Caprices will be Vasile Filip's Suite, because I really wanted to remind my listeners that I come from Romania, that I am and I will always be Romanian, and that one's roots should never be forgotten. I really wanted to include a Romanian piece in my repertoire and in this program. And I have found an extraordinary piece, a Romanian suite by Vasile Filip, which will probably be the delight of the evening, because we will all see, recognize and find ourselves in this piece, which is made up of four parts and which will describe exactly the Romanian soul and character.

This musical journey will end in the contemporary era, with a piece by Nathan Milstein, a great Russian-American violinist, who presented his own form of Caprice no. 24 by Paganini, respectively a piece named "Paganiniana", in which he included fragments from Caprices, but also from Paganini's violin concerts. I thought it was a great piece to end the concert and to end this brace began in classicism and ended in modernism.

What do you think is the importance of Paganini's Caprices in the repertoire of a violinist, and what are your strategies when performing this pieces, which are known as "violinists' terror", with your students?

They are indeed a terror, because these Caprices reach the heights of violin virtuosity. I personally suggest to those who want to study Caprices by Paganini, to start with other Caprices by JakobDont, by Pierre Rode, by Weiniawski, which are good to prepare you for approaching Paganini's music. I think that one should only approach those Caprices after many years of studying, because tackling them too early may not have the desired outcome, and it may even harm the technique of those who attempt to play them. I say this because the score contains some extensions that can bring bodily harm, muscle strains and pain, something that the listener doesn't know when listening to them, he doesn't know how hard it is for the violinist.

I tried, on the other hand, and it was even confirmed to me by someone who listened to me in the hotel room earlier today, that I manage to play these Caprices nicely. And I replied that this was exactly my intention, to present not only the virtuous part, but also the lyrical part, the expressive part, which I find extremely important.

So you are about to meet the Romanian public again, and I would like to know, how do you relate to your listeners when you are on the stage? What is this exchange of energies between the performer and the public like for you?

I have always considered that every appearance on stage is unique and it cannot be premeditated or prepared in any way. This apparition is spontaneous, and as the great Celibidache said - music happens in the moment. In fact, he also refused to make recordings for this exact reason, because an apparition on the stage is something spontaneous, it has its own life, and it doesn't have the same value when we play it back later. You are talking about those energies, that happens right when you are on the stage, when you communicate with the public.

I've always felt very attracted and supported by the public at home, and I feel truly at home when I perform on a Romanian stage. It doesn't matter whether I am in Arad, in Botosani, in Craiova or in Bucharest - I'm still at home. And you can imagine the joy I feel when doing this tours, whether I am solo or in a duet with Gabriel Croitoru or with Horia Mihail, or in a different kind of tour, it is the joy to perform at home. I feel that everyone listensand comes with an open heart, they are not there to judge a piece or to judge me, but simply to take whatever the artist has to offer and to receive with an open heart the beauty of music.

You were also a member in the jury of the 2024 edition of the Enescu Competition. What are the main characteristics of the young generation of violinists, from your perspective?

The new generation has both strengths and weaknesses, and that is why it is very important to keep an eye on them and to guide them, while, at the same time, we learn from them, because every generation brings something new, brings some freshness. Therefore, it is an exchange of experience and knowledge. I've always liked to work with young people and to share with them all the experience I've managed to accumulate during all these years, and to realize at the same time, how much there is still to learn.

The new generation brings freshness and many changes. However, great care is needed not to destroy the core, the direct link with the composer. As the years go by, one feels a kind of dilution of this connection and many invoke the so-called traditions, which of course I adore and I respect, but these traditions must be well understood! It doesn't mean that if someone played that way we have to do the same. I recommend to young people to come back to origins from time to time, to try to understand what the composer meant and wanted to transmit. It is some sort of detective work, which we all have the duty to conduct, we shouldn't only perform and say "Well, I know better what he really meant!" No, we really need to continue that connection with the composer. Afterwards, I wish they took the beauty of music even further, making it known and enjoyable for as many people as possible.