Dvorak: Cello Concerto (with works by Ukrainian composers)

Following the tremendous success of her album "Femmes" (2023), Raphaela Gromes releases a new album, "Dvorák: Cello Concerto", featuring one of the most renowned cello concertos alongside inspiring and moving pieces by Ukrainian composers. It was inspired by Gromes' visit to Kyiv in December 2023, where she performed the Dvorák Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and its chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko, to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

The centerpiece of the album is Antonín Dvořák's (1841-1904) Cello Concerto, which is one of Gromes' absolute favorite pieces for cello. It weaves themes of love, loss, and transcendence, represents the pinnacle of Romantic expression, and reflects Dvořák's deep yearning for his Bohemian homeland. With the aim of integrating Ukrainian music into the European context of classical music, Raphaela Gromes also presents works by Ukrainian composers on this album.

OPUS Klassik Award-winning cellist Raphaela Gromes made her debut as a soloist at the age of 14, when she performed the cello concerto by Friedrich Gulda, which earned the highest praise from audience and press alike. Among other awards, she won First Prize in the Richard Strauss Competition in 2012, First Prize at the International Concorso Fiorindo in Turin in 2013 as well as the 2016 German Music Competition Prize in the solo cello category.

All of her recordings for Sony Classical received fantastic reviews for the choice of repertoire as well as for the musical interpretation. With her captivating and powerful playing she has been consistently creating a diverse repertoire, breaking through genre boundaries time and again. She celebrated astounding success with her double album "Femmes" in 2023, which immediately entered #1 in the German classical music charts and becoming the 8th most selling classical album of the year 2023.