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The Academic Radio Choir - Romanian Religious Music Concert
In the end we talked to musicologist and professor Vasile Vasile, who shared a few impressions about the concert:
'It is a commendable idea, first of all, it is a review of great music literature, from Anton Pann to Irina Odăgescu; it was a very balanced programme. Certainly, it is a choir which only deserves high praise, but speaking of this particular concert, I believe it is one of the representative ones, and it was scheduled well, too, because spiritually we are coming close to the Easter Lent. The choir and the conductor are all worthy of praise, because they have long since deserved it. It is very important to show these values whose works couldn't be played for a long time - Paul Constantinescu, Marțian Negrea. Few people had the chance to know their true mood and their true religious feelings, unmasked, authentic.'
It was 'a dear concert', as conductor Dan Mihai Goia described it, which made the beauty and the significance of music, alongside full sounds and expressivity in performance reach the souls of the audience. To sum up, this is what Dan Mihai Goia said about this music evening:
'It was a special concert, religious concerts always create a certain state of mind, both for the musicians and for the audience. When the EBU asked us to take this project, to organise a religious concert, I found it hard to choose the most beautiful works, from all the valuable creations, in order to represent both Catholicism and Orthodoxism and to show an evolution of music history, from monodies to contemporary works. We wanted to sing a Liturgy tonight, during the first part of the evening, it is the first time I do it with the Radio Choir. It was a difficult programme to choose, but it got us all involved - performance-wise, mood-wise, mentally, which makes me consider it a success. I felt every member of the Radio Choir as being careful, ambitious and in tune with one another - as far as the mood, the music colour and the meaning were concerned, and this pleases me a lot, because a conductor cannot be content unless he manages to bring all these energies and qualities together.
It was a dear concert, a concert that precedes the Easter Lent, which is why we consider we have also made our Christians' duty, which I believe will leave a trace of light, joy and hope. Actually music has been sent by God, it has a divine origin and we sing it humbly, with passion. I am more relaxed now than before we started the concert, because religious music gives one this hope, this joy. This concert is a prayer-concert, we prayed on stage, and if our prayer echoed in the hearts of those who listened, we are certainly very happy and content.'
Translated by Irina Borțoiand Elena Daniela Radu
MTTLC, Bucharest University