Last Friday, January 26th, an opera gala took place on the stage of the Radio Hall, featuring soprano Cristina Păsăroiu, who performed as soloist with the Academic Choir and the National Radio Orchestra, conducted by David Crescenzi.

The opera gala was also attended by the members of the International Classical Music Awards jury, who met for the first time in Romania at the invitation of Radio România Muzical. They also attended the concert of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra at the Romanian Athenaeum on January 25th. The first part of January 26th saw the annual jury meeting at Radio Romania headquarters.

Martin Hoffmeister - MDR Radio: It is extraordinary to come to a cultural city as well known as Bucharest. Our expectations were completely fulfilled. During our annual meeting, we had two excellent presentations by Cristina Comandașu, RRM manager, and the manager of the George Enescu Festival. Outstanding! Lots of information, well-focused, very useful for us. I think many of us will visit the festival and come back to enjoy the culture in Bucharest. We only had a few hours to visit the city, but next time we will be able to explore more.

What did you think of the concerts you attended?

Yesterday's - yes, it was a tempo-heavy performance of the Recviem, sometimes, in my opinion, there was a slight lack of sensitivity in some parts. But in the case of today's - I really liked the soloist, the orchestra, the conductor. Gala is a great musical format, you don't get that every day, so we are very pleased to have been able to attend this concert.

Jakub Puchalski - Radio Chopin Poland: It's my first time in Bucharest and I feel absolutely wonderful to be here. You have impressive concert halls, I've already seen two of them, the Romanian Athenaeum and the Radio Hall, and the concerts I've attended have been wonderful so I'm very happy to have the opportunity to get to know more about Romania's musical culture.

David Zsoldos - Papageno, Hungary: It is an honour for me to be here and to attend this wonderful concert of the National Radio Orchestra together with soprano Cristina Păsăroiu. It is also a pleasure to see the emotional involvement of the audience in the music they are listening to and to see that they are real music lovers and the acoustics of the hall are wonderful.

Frauke Adrians - Das Orchester, Germany: I was impressed by the concert, the singer and the orchestra were wonderful. I enjoyed it very much.

Remy Franck, President of the Jury: I really enjoyed tonight's concert, especially the conductor's ability to shape the sound of the orchestra. The singer has an extraordinary voice, especially in the high register. I appreciated the program chosen because it's one you don't get to hear very often, so I enjoyed it very much.

Anastasia Boutsko, Deuts.che Welle, Germany: It was my first time in Bucharest and in this beautiful hall, where I could listen to a wonderful voice, very elegant. For me, Romania is a cultural centre because of the Enescu Festival, because of the great Romanian musicians who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it is a completely different feeling to be here in person.

Nicola Catto, Musica magazine, Italy: This is the fifth time I've visited Bucharest, so once again I have the opportunity to appreciate not only the city, but also the rich cultural offer. Today we are attending the concert at the Sala Radio, yesterday we were in the wonderful hall of the Athenaeum, so we heard not only two different orchestras, the George Enescu Philharmonic and the Radio Philharmonic, but also two choral ensembles. So, in a very short time we had a good overview of the musical life in Bucharest, which we have known so far only through the Enescu Festival, which I think is not the usual season here.

John Allison - Opera Magazine, UK: I'm very happy to be back here, because Bucharest is one of my favourite cities. My first visit was somewhere around 1997, so more than 25 years ago, and I come back about every five years to sit on juries for music competitions. I love the cultural side of the city, just today when I had a little break I went to visit some of my favourite bookshops and museums. I had a very enjoyable visit, but in particular I was particularly pleased to be at the Radio Hall this evening as I have not often been to this concert hall. I know some of the history that happened in this hall, and being here made me feel that history in a way.

Luc Boentges, Radio 100.7 Luxembourg: I really enjoyed my visit to Bucharest, it was very nice to see these wonderful concert halls and these musicians. It's my first visit and I'm sure it won't be my last.

Ursula Magnes, Radio Stephansdom, Vienna: It was very interesting for me, as it's my first time here in Bucharest. The Romanian Athenaeum is an impressive concert hall, and today we are here at the Sala Radio and it was very interesting to hear this kind of opera music, this fantastic soprano, the orchestra, the conductor who gave a very good performance. For me, it's very relevant that, especially yesterday at the Athenaeum, there were quite a lot of young people in the audience. Coming from Vienna, it's a positive thing to see that here, in Bucharest, young audiences are also interested in classical music.

How did you find the organisation of the annual meeting?

We really have to thank Cristina Comandașu. She did an excellent job. We had a wonderful experience, and we are going to Brasov on Saturday as well. Of course, the meeting is always a good opportunity to share experiences in the field, but also to discuss the technical side - like working on Radio, deciding whether to release a CD or to go digital. It's good to talk about these things.