Harpsichordist Cipriana Smarandescu is on an international tour, performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, with the next event taking place on April 26^th at the Romanian Athenaeum.

Mrs. Cipriana Smarandescu, during an interviewback in 2019, you told my colleague Petre Fugaciu that your next project would be about a Bachan masterpiece, created for the harpsichord - the Goldberg Variations. And this project is happening right now. What does this piece mean to you?

It is, I believe, the most important harpsichord piece that Bach could have dedicated to his descendants. It is well known that this piece has been written for one of his students, a disciple he very much appreciated for his technique and musicality. I am saying this because these are the two mandatory qualities that a harpsichordist should have in order to approach this work. It is a monumental piece, a quite difficult one, both technically and musically speaking, as many facets of Bach's musical expressiveness can be found in it - from the depths of his fugues to exuberance and almost an elegant style in some variations.

When you play it on stage, the most difficult thing in this piece is to switch from a variation to another, to metamorphose, to become an actor putting another mask in order to be another character. I think it is much easier to record this work because you would have more time to achieve the required state for the next variation. While, during a concert, you have to be very precise in letting a new character be on stage.

For me, it was a really hard work. As you were saying, I have had this idea since 2019, and we can say that I have prepared the first variations during the lockdown during the pandemic. You had nothing to do then and everyone was studying the Goldberg Variations. It started as a joke. But when I saw I really enjoyed it and that I was very passionate about this work I started diving deeper into it and I started this Goldberg Variations tour this year on March 21^st.

A very important thing is the fact that these variations, if I am working on them for a single concert, they seem to be in vain, because the complexity of this music requires and allows you to perform it during several concerts in which you are feeling safer and deeper into this fantastic music.

Right during the first concert, the one on March 21^st, 2025, in Rome, I was happy I chose this piece, because it really is a masterpiece that brings you great satisfaction.

As you have mentioned, the international tour on the Goldberg Variations you are performing began with a recital in Rome. What atmosphere would you want to create at your recital on April 26^th at the Romanian Athenaeum?

I would like it to be the exact atmosphere of the Romanian Athenaeum, because this place is also one of the reasons for which I dedicated myself to music. My parents used to take me to concerts at the Romanian Athenaeum and, for me, the philharmonic, be it the grand or the small hall - is indeed a temple of music. This is the exact reason for which I proposed this program to the artistic secretary of the philharmonic, because it raises to the expectations of this prestigious music institution where I have the honour and luck to perform.

I also have to mention another very significant aspect for this recital - in December 2024, the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra bought a new harpsichord, a double manual Neupert, an extraordinarily good instrument I had the opportunity to play during the December recital, together with Mircea Lazar playing the violin. That was the moment when the idea of proposing the philharmonic a Goldberg Variations recital came up, because the instrument is extraordinary for such a difficult program.

So, for me, it comes with great emotions to play at the Athenaeum. Perhaps it is my biggest musical desire, and there will be a lot of emotions and great memories I have been having ever since I was a child, all under the dome of the Romanian Athenaeum.

I hope many people will be there. There are a few tickets left. So, whoever wants to participate at this recital has to hurry because, fortunately, all tickets to Baroque music concerts at the Athenaeum, and not only those I believe, are being sold like hot cakes.

How would you describe the Romanian audience's interest in old music and its presence in the Romanian musical life?

Fortunately, it is a very active presence and I am very glad that there is a lot of old music in Bucharest as well - which is an extraordinarily beautiful thing. I do not want to brag, but together with Ogeanca Lefterescu and maestro Petre Lefterescu, we have been the pioneers of the Baroque music in Bucharest. 30 years ago, we were opening the Harpsichord Department at the Bucharest University of Music, and all these efforts - because it had not been easy at all, there were no instruments, no scores - are paying off now and I am very happy to see a very active music life in Bucharest.

Moreover, In Transylvania, the tradition of old music is very much present. There are numerous old music festivals and I have the opportunity to perform the Goldberg Variations at the Miercurea Ciuc Festival this summer, at the festival in Brașov and then Alba Iulia, Mediaș and Timișoara in autumn.

So, I see a very supported presence of early music in Romania and that excites me a lot, because Romanian musicians are already at a high international level. It is known that, generally, the Romanian musical school is perceived to be an extraordinary one, and this tendency to go towards the Baroque music seems really good to me and I appreciate everything that is being done in Romania for this music.