Mr David Crescenzi, you frequently collaborate with the National Radio Orchestra. How would you describe your relationship with the ensemble?

The fact that I have been invited so many times to conduct this ensemble means that our collaborative relationship has turned into a friendship, and this helps a lot my work, my relationship with the musicians. I am happy with the positive atmosphere during rehearsals.

This Friday you will be performing "Soirées musicales" after Rossini by Benjanim Britten on the Radio Hall stage. Why did you choose this work for the opening of the programme?

First of all, it's a tribute to Rossini, who was born on the 29th of February (in a leap year, then) - a tribute to us and to Britten. Rossini wrote "Soirées musicales" for tenor and piano, and Britten modernised this work, transcribing it for large orchestra, with percussion, trombones, trumpet, with solo moments by these instruments. I think it's a good idea for the opening of the concert.

A rarely performed work is also the Concerto in F major for bassoon and orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber. How would you describe the work?

This work also has a certain connection with Rossini, because Weber was influenced a lot by Rossini's Italian operatic work, so Weber's writing is closer to the Italian operatic style. In fact, the Bassoon Concerto together with the two clarinet concertos are, in my opinion, the most beautiful.

The programme ends on a note in keeping with the calendar moment in which we find ourselves. So, the audience will be able to listen to Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 1, 'Spring'. How is this season suggested in Schumann's music?

This is my favourite symphony, I'm in love with it. When I heard it for the first time, around 1986, at La Scala in Milan, in a rehearsal conducted by Carlos Kleiber, I fell in love from the first moment. This work works very well with the Weber Concerto on the program, because Schumann was a contemporary of Carl Maria von Weber. On the other hand, it's right on the 1st of March, which celebrates March Trinket, and I think it's perfect for this concert. It's a symphony in the major key, expressing nothing but positivity from the start. It's a complicated symphony, it's not so easy to interpret because Schumann is a complicated composer.

Is this your first collaboration with bassoonist Adrian Jojatu?

Yes, this is the first time. I know he is a bassoonist who was famous in Romania and then went to America. He worked for a long time with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is also a teacher. We had a very good relationship from the beginning.

Finally, please give the audience an invitation to the concert!

I look forward to a beautiful concert at the Sala Radio on Friday, a concert at the end of which I hope the audience will leave with a smile.