Imagination / Raphaela Gromes

All previous albums by German cellist and Opus Klassik prize winner Raphaela Gromes for Sony Classical went straight into the Top 20 of the German classical music charts upon release and received consistently excellent reviews On her new album "Imagination" Raphaela Gromes takes the listener on a romantic musical journey into the world of fantasy. In an intimate and technically brilliant way, the young cellist creates intense images before the eyes and ears of the listener. For the album, some of the most beautiful fairytale-like works of classical music were newly arranged and recorded with Julian Riem on the piano and musician friends: the "Sleeping Beauty Waltz" by Tchaikovsky, the "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Dvorak's yearning "Song to the Moon" and Humperdinck's enchanting "Evening Blessing" from the opera "Hansel and Gretel" But Raphaela Gromes has also recorded lesser-known works with Julian Riem on piano and musician friends: Franz Liszt's "Gnomenreigen" as well as David Popper's "Gnomen- und Elfentanz". The artist also discovered real rarities for the "Imagination" album: the "Märchenstunde" by the composer Margarete Schweikert, born in Karlsruhe in 1887, "Märchen" by Paul Juon and "Pohadka" by Leos Janacek or "Forgotten fairy tales" by the New York composer Edward MacDowell (1860 - 1908) A total of 17 imaginative, poetic and also highly virtuosic works can be found on "Imagination" - and of course film music cannot be missing from such an album; that is why Gromes has recorded two film music hits in a new version for cello and piano: "Shire" from "The Lord of the Rings" and "Leias' Theme" from "Star Wars". To match the colourfulness of the chosen works, Raphaela Gromes invited not only pianist Julian Riem but also musician friends to participate in the recording, including violinist Daniel Dodds, harpist Anaïs Gaudemard, the Arcis Saxophone Quartet and cellist Angela Chang. The result, a co-production with SWR, is an imaginative, varied album full of beautiful, interesting melodies.

Price: $22.98