On Monday, the 30^th of January, a concert entitled "Tribute to George Enescu" will be held at the Paris Philharmonic. The violist Răzvan Popovici will be one of the protagonists of this event. The Romanian violist will tell us more about his presence on the Parisian stage, in an interview given to Ioana Ţintea.

Mister Răzvan Popovici, on Monday, the 30^th of January, you will be one of the protagonists of the event "Tribute to George Enescu", you'll go up the stage of the Paris Philharmonic. What exactly is it about and what was on your mind when you received the invitation to take part in this event?

It is a very beautiful project started by the violinist Nicolas Dautricourt through which he created an extremely suggestive program around Enescu's octet, relating to Enescu's maestros, to the Parisian musical world and not only that, including Bartok at the same time.So, I remember with great pleasure my debut in this project with Nicolas, on the stage of the Enescu Festival two years ago, after which we performed for quite a while in France and took the project to various important halls and festivals in this country. We reach now one of the final concerts of the tour and the joy was doubled,because originally the great French violist Gérard Caussé was chosen for this concert, but due to an illness he canceled, so I was very honored to be asked to replace him. You probably know that Gérard Caussé is considered to be one of the old idols by all violists, representing one of the great sacred monsters of the instrument, therefore the joy is double, in fact triple, the first time performing at the Paris Philharmonic, the fact that I am walking in the footsteps of Gérard Caussé and of course, being able to perform this extraordinary piece by Enescu, The Octet for strings.

What do you feel when you perform pieces by George Enescu on international stages?

I don't think it makes any difference whether you play the Enescu Octet or the Mendelssohn Octet, because both pieces are extraordinary, for example, but when we takeEnescu's Octet to these sacred halls and significantplaces for the European musical culture, of course I feel very proud and I am very happy that in the recent years I have made this masterpiece much better known to a very wide audience in many halls of Europe.

On the 3^rd of February you will hold a concert at the Radio Concert Hall, together with the violinist AlexandruTomescu and the Romanian Radio National Orchestra. What will you be performing?

We'll be performing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's splendid "Sinfonia concertante", probably the most beautifully written concert of the composer, in my opinion. It's a delight to return to the Radio Concert Hall stage as a soloist, this time with AlexandruTomescu, an old childhood friend of mine. I can't wait to perform this piece at the Radio Concert Hall.

After this event at the Radio Concert Hall, where will you be performing?

The very next day, on Saturday, we will be giving a small concert with the pianist Cristiana Mihart, we will be performing another piece by George Enescu, "Concertstück" for viola and piano, in an extraordinary concert,part of this special project which was also awarded at The "Musicrit" Gala, Houses of Musicians, created and made even more famous by your colleague, Monica Isăcescu.