Raphaela Gromes Offenbach

On 20 June 1819, 200 years ago, the famous composer Jaques Offenbach was born in Cologne as "Jakob" Offenbach. The young cellist Raphaela Gromes, who already received excellent reviews and even celebrated chart successes with her first two albums for Sony Classical, has come up with a very special Offenbach album for the anniversary, having already presented Offenbach's "Hommage à Rossini" in a highly praised premiere recording on her last Rossini album. For, before Offenbach was acclaimed in musical theatre, he himself had a great career as a cellist and was even celebrated throughout Europe as the "Liszt of the cello"

Only few cellists are as inspiring as Raphaela Gromes: her cello playing is virtuosic and vibrant, full of passion and technically brilliant, versatile and charming at the same time. She fascinates her audience as soloist as well as duo-partner or member of a wind-quartet, her performance being fantastically challenging and extraordinarily light-footed.

Raphaela Gromes grew up, as it were, with Rossini. While still a child in Munich, she went with her mother to the Bavarian State Opera. An “action with music” became an entirely natural form of narrative for her, with the operas of the Swan of Pesaro accompanying her throughout her childhood, when they were her favourite consolation and the source of her greatest happiness. “I wanted to thank him for everything that he has given me,” the violoncellist admits. She is now doing this with a striking selection of arrangements of arias and songs (nos. 1–5 and no. 9) as well as with Rossini’s own original piece for violoncello and piano (no. 7), a set of variations by Bohuslav Martinů (no. 6) and a veritable discovery in the form of Jacques Offenbach’s Hommage à Rossini for violoncello and orchestra (no. 8). The archaeological expedition that ultimately led to this spectacular find deserves a more detailed description on account of its labyrinthine character.