Femmes Raphaela Gromes

• Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179): O virtus sapientiae (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem):
• 1 O virtus sapientiae (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 02:45
• Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria (1724 - 1780): Talestri:
• 2 Talestri: Da me ti dividi (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 04:09
• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626:
• 3 Dido and Aeneas, Z. 626: When I am Laid in Earth (Dido's Lament, Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 03:13
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Le nozze di Figaro, K.492:
• 4 Le nozze di Figaro, K.492: Deh vieni non tardar 03:08
• Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896): 3 Romances, Op. 22:
• 5 3 Romances, Op. 22: III. Leidenschaftlich schnell (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 03:40
• Pauline Viardot Garcia (1821 - 1910): Six Morceaux, VWV 3003:
• 6 Six Morceaux, VWV 3003: II. Bohémienne (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 02:30
• 7 Six Morceaux, VWV 3003: I. Romance (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 03:08
• 8 Six Morceaux, VWV 3003: VI. Tarantelle (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 03:15
• Matilde Capuis (1913 - 2017): Tre Momenti for Cello and String Orchestra:
• 9 Tre Momenti for Cello and String Orchestra: I. Speranze 05:30
• 10 Tre Momenti for Cello and String Orchestra: II. Solitudine 05:48
• 11 Tre Momenti for Cello and String Orchestra: III. Allegrezze 03:21
• Victoria Yagling (1946 - 2011): Suite for Cello and String Orchestra. II. Aria:
• 12 Suite for Cello and String Orchestra. II. Aria 04:34
• Julian Riem (b. 1973): Carmen Fantasie (After Georges Bizet: Carmen, GB 9/WD 31):
• 13 Carmen Fantasie (After Georges Bizet: Carmen, GB 9/WD 31) 09:23
• Florence Price (1887 - 1953): Adoration (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem):
• 14 Adoration (Arr. for Cello & Orchestra by Julian Riem) 03:20
• Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979): Trois Pièces:
• 15 Trois Pièces: I. Modéré 02:26
• 16 Trois Pièces: II. Sans vitesse et à l'aise 01:23
• 17 Trois Pièces: III. Vite et nerveusement rythmeé 02:33
• Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918): Deux Morceaux:
• 18 Deux Morceaux: I. Nocturne (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Julian Riem) 03:04
• Cécile Chaminade (1857 - 1944): Nuit étoilée (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Julian Riem):
• 19 Nuit étoilée (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Julian Riem) 02:17
• Henriette Bosmans (1895 - 1952): Impressions:
• 20 Impressions: II. Nuit calme 06:29
• Germaine Tailleferre (1892 - 1983): Berceuse (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Julian Riem):
• 21 Berceuse (Arr. for Cello & Piano by Julian Riem) 02:06
• Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759 - 1824): Sicilienne:
• 22 Sicilienne 02:39
• Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805 - 1847): Fantasia in G Minor:
• 23 Fantasia in G Minor 05:18
• Laura Netzel (1839 - 1927): Danse Hongroise, Op. 51:
• 24 Danse Hongroise, Op. 51 02:56
• Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850 - 1927): Romanze, Op. 35:
• 25 Romanze, Op. 35 03:33
• Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979): Epilog:
• 26 Epilog 05:08
• Grazyna Bacewicz (1909 - 1969): Mazovian Dance:
• 27 Mazovian Dance 03:08
• Amy Beach (1867 - 1944): 4 Sketches, Op. 15:
• 28 4 Sketches, Op. 15: III. Dreaming 04:57
• Dolores White (b. 1932): Las Tarantulas:
• 29 Las Tarantulas 03:29
• Lera Auerbach (b. 1973): Postludium:
• 30 Postludium 03:05
• Rachel Portman (b. 1960): Chocolat Suite:
• 31 Chocolat Suite 04:07
• Quincy Jones (b. 1933), Rod Temperton (1949 - 2016), Lionel Richie (b. 1949): Miss Celie's Blues:
• 32 Miss Celie's Blues 02:36
• Finneas O'Connell (b. 1997), Billie Eilish O'Connell (b. 2001): No Time to Die:
• 33 No Time to Die 03:17
• Total Runtime 02:02:15

Info for Femmes

For many years, star cellist and OPUS KLASSIK prizewinner Raphaela Gromes has championed works by women composers. Three of her albums, which have been highly praised by the press and the public, have featured music by unknown female composers, and she has a long-standing collaboration with the "Frau und Musik" archive in Frankfurt. So it is only logical that Raphaela Gromes gives a voice to outstanding women of music history from nine centuries with this double album "Femmes". No less than 23 female composers are represented on the double album: from Hildegard von Bingen and Clara Schumann to Lera Auerbach and Billie Eilish, but also famous opera figures such as Mozart's Susanna from "Le nozze di Figaro" or Bizet's "Carmen".

"What have we missed out on all these decades of wonderful music in a culture that to this day largely ignores compositions by women?" asks author Susanne Wosnitzka in the accompanying booklet text. Because in the programme of German professional orchestras, less than 2% of the works are still by women composers, and the foundation "Donne-Frauen in der Musik" (Women in Music) comes to a share of only 7.7% in a survey of 111 orchestras in 31 countries. A strange picture, because for centuries there have been extremely talented women composers who have left behind a multitude of exciting works.

"Inspired by a friend's idea to dedicate an album to only female composers, I plunged into research and was thrilled and shocked at the same time," says Raphaela Gromes. "Thrilled by the unbelievable number of brilliant female composers who have existed all over the world since the Middle Ages, shocked because I had never heard of most of them."

In close cooperation with the archive "Frau und Musik", the "Furore Verlag" - a publishing house that only publishes works by women composers, and Sony Classical, the concept for "Femmes" was born, and it became a double album. It features works by 23 female composers from all over the world, with well-known names such as Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel or Nadia and Lili Boulanger, and real discoveries with music by Princess Maria Antonia Walpurgis of Bavaria, the Dutch-Jewish composer Henriette Bosmans, the Swedish composer Laura Netzel, the African-American composers Dolores White and Florence Price or the contemporary composer Victoria Yagling. Some world premiere recordings can also be heard on "Femmes", such as the "Tre momenti" for violoncello and string orchestra by the Italian composer Matilde Capuis.

Raphaela Gromes is accompanied on "Femmes" by the Festival Strings Lucerne Orchestra and its artistic director Daniel Dodds, with whom she has worked for many years, as well as by the pianist Julian Riem, who also wrote all the arrangements on the album.

Raphaela Gromes, cello
Julian Riem, piano
Festival Strings Lucerne
Daniel Dodds, conductor

Raphaela Gromes
"I was so impressed listening to the Gromes Riem Duo performing the Debussy Sonata at a master class in Munich recently. Admittedly it is not a natural setting for performance, yet the duo played with great aplomb. But what impressed me most was the obvious wish to communicate the content to their public.

It is their courageous curiosity and energy that impressed me. Their commitment to one another as duo partners for four years is further testimony to their commitment to forge a lasting meaningful musical partnership, and to share their musical discoveries with a larger public.” Yo-Yo Ma, 02/2016

Raphaela Gromes received her first cello lessons at the age of four. Being only seven years old, she already accompanied her parents – both being cellists – on stage. Her solo debut with Friedrich Gulda’s cello concerto in autumn 2005 was highly acclaimed both by the audience and the media. In consequence numerous concerts with the great cello repertory followed.

Various composers have already dedicated cello concertos to her: the world premiere of Dominik Giesriegel’s cello concerto in 2012 was followed by that of Valentin Bachmann’s cello concerto performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra Budweis conducted by David Svec. The third world premiere, the double concerto “Chroma” that Mario Bürki had written for Raphaela Gromes and Cécile Grüebler in 2014, brought her into contact with the Swiss military orchestra. Further on she collaborated with Kent Nagano and the Czech Philharmonic as well as with Christoph Altstaedt and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn.

Raphaela Gromes was invited to the Jungfrau Music Festival Interlaken, the Vorsprung Festival of the “Audi Summer Concerts” in Ingolstadt, the Munich Opera Festival, the Marvão International Music Festival, the Mondsee Musiktage Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival. In addition to her career as soloist she is also devoted to chamber music. Her chamber music partners are amongst others Christian Altenburger, Isabelle von Keulen, Alexander Lubimov, Patrick Demenga and Mischa Maisky. Together with her duo-partner, the pianist Julian Riem, she regularly gives concerts throughout Germany and abroad.

Her first recordings that were taken with her longtime piano partner Julian Riem, were released by Farao Music in 2014. Since 2016 she is one of SONY Classical exclusive artists. In September 2017 her first SONY-CD with the works of the late Romantic composers Giuseppe Martucci, Leone Sinigaglia, Ferrucio B. Busoni and Mario Castelnuovo, that she recorded with her partner Julian Riem, will be released.

Raphaela Gromes has already won numerous prizes: in 2011 she was awarded the Musikförderpreis des Konzertverein Ingolstadt (young musicians’ scholarship), in 2012 she was first in the Competition Richard Strauss. In 2012 she was granted a scholarship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German National Merit Foundation) and has been supported by Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now since then. Furthermore she received the scholarship of the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation Stendal. Raphaela Gromes and her duo cello partner, Cécile Grüebler, received the Förderpreis der Theodor-Rogler-Stiftung Bad Reichenhall (young musicians’ scholarship) in 2014. In 2016 she was first in the cello solo competition of the German Music Council and became one of this year’s young talented musicians who receive special promotion (“Bundesauswahl Junger Solisten”). She was first prize winner of the Kulturkreis-Gasteig competition in 2012 and 2016 and also of the international Concorso Fiorindo Turin in 2013.

Raphaela Gromes is a graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich where she studied with Wen-Sinn Yang. She started her studies with Reinhard Latzko at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2015/16. She took master classes with well-known cellists like David Geringas, Yo-Yo Ma, Natalia Gutman, László Fenyö, Daniel Müller-Schott, Kristin von der Goltz, Wolfgang Boettcher, Anner Bylsma, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmid and Peter Bruns, who accepted her as junior student from 2006 until 2010 at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig.

Raphaela Gromes’ cello is a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume instrument of 1855 that is provided by a private benefactor.

Booklet for Femmes