Description

Rhapsodie Roumaine is a musical canvas for the imagination.

This recording features two emblematic works by the Romanian Grandmaster George Enescu. The Romanian Rhapsody No.1 is presented in a new Piano Quartet arrangement by Thomas Wally, commissioned by the Ensemble Raro. The enigmatic violinist Gilles Apap together with the pianist Diana Ketler perform arguably Enescu’s greatest masterpiece, the Third Sonata for Violin and Piano „dans le caractère populaire roumain“, a work of extreme beauty and intensity.

Béla Bartók’s ever popular Six Romanian Dances for Violin and Piano and a selection from his Violin Duos, performed here on two violas, capture the unique and compelling spirit of the Romanian traditional folk music.
Enescu’s recently rediscovered Nocturne Ville d’Avrayen for Piano Quartet is a souvenir of the composer’s lifelong friendship with his student, the great Yehudy Menuhin.

The violinists Gilles Apap and Alexander Sitkovetsky, the violists Razvan Popovici and Christian Nas, the cellist Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg and the pianist Diana Ketler transport the listener to the multi-layered world of the Romanian musical landscape, where joy and melancholy are inseparable and heaven is to be found both under the feet and over the head.

Description

There are always artistswho stay true to a specific language, imagery and ideals. Their tone might seem modest and their gaze gives an impression to be turned backwards. From William Morris to Brahms, Handel to Goethe, this view has strangely provided them with an endless vitality. Then there are others who search for the Holy Grail only to never find it, for new horizons and new harmonies, burning everything that has preceded them. The divide between the two types, in the musical and cultural world, has never been deeper than in the first half of the 20th century.
Ensemble Raro’s new recording of two rarely performed chamber music gems by Ernő Dohnányi – the Second Piano Quintet in E-flat Minor  Op.26 (1914) and the Sextet Op. 37 in C Major (1935) for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn – proposes to reassess these works, which are imbued with idealism, and to reflect upon the values encoded in them. It may communicate to the receptive listener something new about the world that surrounds us, since “it is the present that polarises the events into fore- and after-history” (W. Benjamin).

Description

“Dreaming and wishing hold the finer matter of life,” wrote Franz Kafka. It is no accident that he came from Prague, the city that is the home of the sinister, where dreams are taken more seriously than in the world’s brighter places. It is easy for those who mistrust the spoken language and the verbal articulation of thoughts. Among them were composers like the three great Czechs Antonín Dvorák, born in Nelahozeves in Bohemia in 1841, Leos Janácek, who came into the world in Hukváldy in Moravia in 1854, and Josef Suk, who came from Krecovice in the vicinity of Prague in 1874.
The three of them also shared an enthusiastic interest in old national traditions, among them the great treasure trove of fairy tales and the wealth of folk melodies and rhythms. Perhaps fairy tales and dreams can help us to endure reality, because they place it in a vast continuum and because individual suffering then becomes part of a greater whole from which no-one is excluded. If that is true, then the music presented here really ought to be available on prescription.
Ensemble Raro was formed in 2004 by four extraordinary young musicians: pianist Diana Ketler, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, violist Razvan Popovici and cellist Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg. Their goal is to create unforgettable musical moments and to combine innovative approach with rich European tradition of intimate and sincere chamber music making. In 2011 the Ensemble Raro welcomed new members: violinists Alina Pogostkina and Erik Schumann, clarinetist Thorsten Johanns, hornist Olivier Darbellay and cellist Julian Arp.

Description

Ensemble Raro joined forces with the violinist Andrej Bielow to record three jewels of the Romantic chamber repertoire – Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quartet in E Flat Major, Erno Dohnanyi’s First Piano Quintet and Joseph Suk’s Elegie. The result leaves a singular impression on the listener. An unaffected sincerity of the five performers takes it’s roots from the profound respect they had developed for each other’s musical identity. Complete identification with the musical material coupled with truly Romantic imagination makes for a very fine listening experience.
Ensemble Raro was formed in 2004 by four extraordinary young musicians. Ensemble Raro is constantly looking for creative programme forms, in which they aim to establish new cultural, musical and literary connections. Raro is the ensemble in residence at the Chiemgauer Musikfrühling Festival in Traunstein, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, Kobe International Music Festival, Pelerinages in Munich and Mozartiade in Augsburg. They are actively involved in performing contemporary chamber music repertoire. They gave a British and German premieres of Peteris Vasks’s Piano Quartet. Their performances of Walter Braunfels’ and George Enescu’s works in Pelerinages series in Munich received a high critical acclaim.
When a new musician is being considered for the ensemble, personal compatibility is the criterion, not technique. That was the case with the Ukrainian violinist Andrej Bielow. “It was clear from the first note that we would play together,” says Diana Ketler, “because he can completely open himself emotionally – to his colleagues, to the audience, to the music.”

Description

Yearning is a constant in life and in music. Peteris Vasks’s music is always tinged with sorrow and melancholy, but hope is always there as well. “The beauty of nature seizes us like a promise of something,” wrote the philosopher Ernst Bloch, and that promise might be seen as Peteris Vasks’s point of departure.

Although the Third Piano Quartet was not published or premiered until 1875, Brahms had begun working on it in 1855/56. Even for Brahms, who spent a lot of time revising works until he arrived at the final form, twenty years to complete a composition was exceptional.

Ensemble Raro was formed in 2004 by four extraordinary young musicians. Ensemble Raro is constantly looking for creative programme forms, in which they aim to establish new cultural, musical and literary connections. Raro is the ensemble in residence at the Chiemgauer Musikfrühling Festival in Traunstein, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, Kobe International Music Festival, Pelerinages in Munich and Mozartiade in Augsburg. They are actively involved in performing contemporary chamber music repertoire. They gave a British and German premieres of Peteris Vasks’s Piano Quartet. Their performances of Walter Braunfels’ and George Enescu’s works in Pelerinages series in Munich received a high critical acclaim.

Description

Members of the Ensemble RaRo are playing Romanian Songs and Dances of BARTÓK, SCHUBERT, MARTINU and other composers

The ensemble Raro was created 2004 by four outstanding musicians, whose goal is it to create unusual chamber-musical moments. In order to realize this as consistently as possible, the ensemble prefers the position „Ensemble in Residence “, which has it in Munich, Traunstein, Augsburg, Germany, Bucharest and Kobe, Japan. Diana Ketler, who’s been ask to became in 2001 a professor for piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and being a Soloist with considerable Orchestras in nearly all countries in the world, uses themselves passionately for the music of the Baltic countries and works closely together with composers such as Peteris Vasks and Arvo Pärt. Razvan Popovici plays as soloist in several European countries. Its participation as a viola player under Abbado, Harnoncourt, Maazel and Wand coined its career. He created the Ensemble Raro and is Initiator of several important Music Festivals.

After this release a new Co-Produktion with the “Bayerische Rundfunk” with works of Peteris Vasks and Johannes Brahms follows this autumn on the Solo Musica Label.