Mr. Gabriel Bebeșelea, you've been collaborating with the National Radio Orchestra for nearly a decade. How would you describe your relationship with the ensemble and how are rehearsals going?

I'm so happy to return to the National Radio Orchestra, because it's one of the first great orchestras I made my debut with and indeed I've been conducting the National Orchestra since I was still a student. It was so exciting to me back then and it is just as exciting to me now, especially as we tackle repertoires that are performed less, but which are extremely interesting and full of energy and color at the same time.

You've also conducted a series of concerts with violinist Leticia Moreno as soloist. One of them took place right at the Romanian Athenaeum in 2021. How would you describe your collaboration with the soloist?

I've been working together with Leticia Moreno for quite a long time and we've performed a lot of concerts together in several countries. She is one of the most temperamental violinists of her generation and that's not only because she is Spanish, but because she has a really special approach to all scores. For example, we've performed together even Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major and Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Sergei Prokofiev, where she delivered a sublime interpretation, but full of energy and power, the kind of intrinsic power that comes from within. I am even more delighted that we're going to be performing the "Symphonie espagnole in D minor" together for the first time. We haven't performed this piece before, which actually bears the signature of the Spanish violinists, even if it was written by Édouard Lalo. So I am really glad for this collaboration, because I know her skills and the manner and seriousness with which she approaches each piece.

The Spanish Evening at the Radio Hall opens up with the "Spanish Symphony" by Lalo, as you've already mentioned, which is actually a work for violin and orchestra. What are your thoughts on this title choice on the part of the compositor?

First of all, Lalo made a synthesis, so to say, between symphony and concerto, because the whole discourse has five movements, which are actually five dances-what Bartók would call a few decades later the "imaginary folklore", because there are no exact quotes from the Spanish folk music, but inventions, stylistic elements made up by Édouard Lalo, which look a lot like this idiom that is typical of Andalusia. This region of Andalusia is particularly present in Lalo's work and being, as I said, a synthesis between symphony and orchestra, the orchestral contribution goes beyond simple accompaniment to a true dialogue with the soloist.

We can also find elements of Spanish music in the second work of the concert's program. How would you describe de Falla's orchestration in "The Three-Cornered Hat"?

It is a ballet ordered by a true mastermind of artistic management, Sergei Diaghilev, who discovered so many composers. We owe him a lot of works of art from the beginning of the 20^th century, including Stravinsky's "The Firebird", "Petrushka" and "The Rite of Spring". This ballet is amazingly colorful. It is very rhythmic, but still describes-as I like to say, even during my rehearsals with the orchestra-a whole day of colors. It begins with an early morning in Spain and ends at nighttime, which was one of Falla's keen interests. He was also the one who wrote that famous work called "Noches en los jardines de España"-Nights in the Gardens of Spain-which depicts not only famous parks from Spain, but also the colour of night. He was very interested in this synesthetic ability between colour and sound. This can be seen very well in "The Three-Cornered Hat", a work which is more pictorial and imagistic than predominantly sonorous, so to say.

Last but not least, I would like you to invite the audience to the concert.

I'm inviting the audience to a really special concert, with a typically Spanish repertoire, but very energetic, creating a typical Iberian atmosphere.