Andrei Ioniță regards Dvořák’s Cello Concerto as the best of its kind

Many fine concertos have been written for the cello, but Andrei Ioniță could not be happier about the one he will perform for his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: the famed 1894 work by Antonín Dvořák.

“To this day, I think no matter what cellist you would ask,” the Romanian cellist said, “even though they might have some emotional favorite, everybody would tell you that this particular work is the epitome of cello playing,” said the Romanian cellist, who will perform with the CSO under Herbert Blomstedt in concerts March 9 and 11-12. “And I think it’s one of those pieces that will be hard to surpass even in the years to come.” 

In his only other visit to the area, Ioniță, now 29, presented a recital in 2017 at Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. “This will be first time even visiting downtown Chicago, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

After Ioniță began piano lessons when he was 5 or 6 years old, his teacher suggested that he study a stringed instrument as well. “She had this sort of vision for me,” he said. So he found himself paired with a cello when he was in third grade, and he immediately took to the instrument. “From the very first lesson, I knew it would become my voice,” he said. Although he continued the piano for some time, cello did, indeed, become what he called his “main passion and main love.” After his first recital with the instrument, the same piano teacher came to him and suggested he also then add conducting to his musical pursuits. “We’ll have to see about that,” he said with a chuckle, as he recalled the moment.

“From the very first lesson, I knew it would become my voice.” — Andrei Ioniță about the cello

Although he listened to recordings of classical musicians from all the world growing up, he took special inspiration from Radu Lupu, who died in 2022 at age 76. The Romanian virtuoso was considered one of the great pianists of late 20th and early 21st centuries. Ioniță got the chance to hear Lupu in person about 10 years ago at the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest. “That’s still the strongest memory that I’ve had listening from the audience,” he said. The two met afterward and had a chance to talk. “He was the most amazing person,” Ioniță said. “I know he used to have this kind of enigmatic persona, but he was a just lovely introvert with tons of ideas, maybe too many too ideas. His playing was absolutely transcendent.”

Although the cellist had already taken prizes at a few earlier contests, including first prize at the Aram Khatchaturian International Competition, his big career breakthrough came with his victory at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, held every four years in Moscow. He got his first agent shortly thereafter, a must for anyone wanting to perform professionally. “You can really talk about before and after the competition for me,” he said. “It was really an amazing platform. I owe everything to that moment in time.”

Participating in previous contests was something of double-edged sword in Moscow, because it gave him experience with what he called the “pressure-cooker atmosphere” of such events but he felt more pressure to excel because of those earlier successes. “Just the feeling of being under that amount of spotlight, it was a really a grueling experience,” he said. “But I’m grateful I went through it, because after something like that, you are prepared for the rest of a career.”

Ioniță’s career got another bump from his two-year tenure as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2016-18. As part of this program for up-and-coming musicians, he presented his Wigmore Hall debut, performed chamber concerts with other participants and took part in varied recording projects. Indeed, his first album, “Oblique Strategies,” was recorded in the BBC studios in 2018 and released in 2019. “Once you are in the program, you always stay part of the family,” he said. “I still get requests from their team and invitations. It’s really one of the nicest platforms there is, especially for the English market.”

“Oblique Strategies” is a recording for solo cello, without piano accompaniment, as is more common. It begins with the first of J.S. Bach’s six famous suites for cello and incorporates Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello in B Minor, Op. 8, what Ioniță called the “iconic work of the 20th century for cello solo.” Also featured are two contemporary works, including the piece that gave the recording its title, Eleven Oblique Strategies (2014) by Australian composer Brett Dean. The latter was one of the commissioned pieces Ioniță was required to play at the Emanuel Feuermann Competition, and it stuck in his memory. 

“The program was not necessarily autobiographical,” Ioniță said of the album. “But I wanted to show my relationship with the instrument, and I wanted to showcase all of the abilities of this amazing instrument, because it has such a humongous tonal and color range.”