{"id":1998053,"date":"2025-09-05T00:36:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1998053"},"modified":"2025-09-05T00:36:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T00:36:51","slug":"new-music-raphaela-gromes-fortissima-sony-classical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/new-music-raphaela-gromes-fortissima-sony-classical\/","title":{"rendered":"New music \u2013 Raphaela Gromes: Fortissima (Sony Classical)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arcana.fm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/raphaela-gromes.jpeg\"><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>adapted from the press release by <strong>Ben Hogwood<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On September 12<sup>th<\/sup>, Sony Classical releases <em>Fortissima<\/em>, the new double album by cellist <strong>Raphaela Gromes<\/strong> with the <strong>Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO),\u00a0<\/strong>conducted by\u00a0<strong>Anna Rakitina<\/strong>\u00a0and featuring\u00a0<strong>Julian Riem<\/strong>\u00a0on piano:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Lost Composers (Fortissima)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3xiwRw5qrFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The album is a compelling collection of numerous world premiere recordings featuring works by neglected women composers. \u00a0Their remarkable life stories can also be discovered in the book by Raphaela Gromes and Susanne Wosnitzka, published simultaneously in German by Random House. <em>Fortissima<\/em> is an inspiring musical document celebrating strong women figures who pursued their dreams under adverse conditions and refused to be held back by prescribed societal roles.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFortissima is about role models, for everyone, but especially for young women,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>states Raphaela Gromes.<em>\u00a0\u201cThe stories of these artists are about personal integrity, the longing for freedom, and irrepressible creativity. \u00a0It\u2019s not just about outstanding music, but deeply inspiring personalities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Raphaela Gromes has been researching the music of women composers for more than five years. \u00a0Her successful 2023 album \u2018Femmes\u2019 was already a result of this work.\u00a0<em>\u201cIn my education and career, I hardly ever came into contact with the music of female composers, and yet there is so much extraordinary music to discover,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>explains Raphaela Gromes.<em>\u00a0\u201cI want to help make these works more widely known and hope they will one day become part of the standard repertoire.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The first half of the double album is dedicated to compositions for cello and piano by <strong>Henri\u00ebtte Bosmans<\/strong>, <strong>Victoria Yagling<\/strong>, <strong>Emilie Mayer<\/strong>, <strong>M\u00e9lanie Bonis<\/strong>, and <strong>Luise Adolpha Le Beau<\/strong>, complemented by an arrangement of <em>All I Ask<\/em> by <strong>Adele<\/strong>. \u00a0The second half features cello concertos by <strong>Maria Herz<\/strong> and <strong>Marie Ja\u00ebll<\/strong>, a ballade for cello and orchestra by <strong>Elisabeth Kuyper<\/strong>, two newly composed orchestral works <em>Femmage I<\/em> and <em>Femmage II<\/em> by <strong>Rebecca Dale<\/strong> plus an orchestral arrangement of <strong>P!NK<\/strong>\u2019s <em>Wild Hearts Can\u2019t be Broken<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Raphaela Gromes was inspired to record Maria Herz\u2019s cello concerto by the composer\u2019s grandson, Albert Herz, who contacted her following a radio programme about her 2023 album \u2018Femmes\u2019, which placed women composers firmly in the spotlight. \u00a0Maria Herz, born in Cologne in 1878 into the Jewish textile dynasty Bing, was forced to flee Nazi Germany and initially lived in England, later in the United States. \u00a0She left her grandson a large box full of compositions, letters, and pictures, in which the forgotten cello concerto was found. \u00a0Gromes was instantly captivated upon first browsing the score: the cello leads through an exciting movement with virtuosic solo cadenzas, dense harmonically complex passages, and a jubilant final stretta that evokes the Jewish dance \u2018Freylekhs\u2019. \u00a0Herz began composing after the birth of her four children and, following the death of her husband, sometimes published under a male pseudonym.<\/p>\n<p>The struggle to gain recognition as a female musician and composer was shared by contemporaries Marie Ja\u00ebll, born 1846 in Alsace as Marie Trautmann, and Elisabeth Kuyper, born 1877. \u00a0Although Marie Ja\u00ebll was hailed as a musical prodigy and toured across Europe as a child piano virtuoso, a career as a composer largely eluded her. \u00a0She received private tuition from C\u00e9sar Franck and Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns and, as personal secretary to Franz Liszt, edited and completed several of his works. \u00a0Liszt aptly summarised her situation:\u00a0<em>\u201cA man\u2019s name above her music, and it would be on every piano.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Her virtuosic and moving cello concerto is considered the first such work by a woman and is dedicated to her late husband. \u00a0Elisabeth Kuyper became the first woman to win the Mendelssohn Scholarship (1905) and was appointed composition lecturer in 1908 in Berlin, another first. \u00a0Yet a lasting career as a composer and, especially, conductor, was denied her. \u00a0She subsequently founded several women\u2019s orchestras \u2013 in Berlin, London and the USA \u2013 all of which eventually failed due to lack of funding.\u00a0 Kuyper died impoverished and forgotten in Ticino. \u00a0Many of her works are considered lost, including her Ballade for Cello and Orchestra, which Julian Riem reconstructed\u00a0 from a surviving piano score.<\/p>\n<p>Emilie Mayer, born in 1812, and Luise Adolpha Le Beau, born in 1850, were fortunate to gain recognition as composers during their lifetimes. \u00a0Mayer\u2019s works were performed at the Konzerthaus Berlin, including for King Friedrich III. \u00a0She had to finance both the performances of her works and their publication herself, which was only possible thanks to an inheritance from her father. \u00a0The Sonata in A major for Piano and Cello is one of ten surviving cello sonatas. \u00a0Luise Adolpha Le Beau was supported early on as a pianist by her parents and received lessons from Clara Schumann. \u00a0She was the first woman to study composition under Josef Rheinberger in Munich and first gained attention for her compositions in 1882 with her Five Pieces for Violoncello Op. 24. \u00a0The cello sonata Op. 17, recorded by Raphaela Gromes, was even recommended by an all-male jury as a\u00a0<em>\u201cpublishable enrichment.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Henri\u00ebtte Bosmans, born in 1895, also received some recognition as a composer in her homeland of the Netherlands, although she was better known as a pianist and, after the war, as a music journalist. \u00a0Due to her Jewish heritage, she was forced to go into hiding during the Nazi regime and succeeded in rescuing her mother, who had been deported to a concentration camp. \u00a0Her cello sonata was originally commissioned for the cellist Marix Loevesohn and was composed after the First World War.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the early female composers were initially instrumentalists \u2013 a description that particularly applies to Victoria Yagling, a true star cellist. Born in 1946 in the Soviet Union, she studied with Rostropovich and won major competitions. \u00a0Censorship in the USSR hindered her creative work, and it was only in 1990 that she was able to emigrate to Finland, where she became a highly respected professor. \u00a0In an era when, in some circles, working as a female musician was equated with prostitution, M\u00e9lanie Bonis, born in 1858 in Paris, had to fight even for piano lessons. \u00a0Exceptionally talented, she was eventually admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve to study with C\u00e9sar Franck. \u00a0Oppressed by her parents and forced into marriage, she suffered from severe depression during the final 15 years of her life. Yet it was during this period that she composed the delicate piece M\u00e9ditation, which her granddaughter discovered in 2018 in an attic.<\/p>\n<p>Three contemporary works are included on \u2018Fortissima\u2019: Femmage I and II were composed especially for Raphaela Gromes by British composer Rebecca Dale (b. 1985). \u00a0In the reflective, cinematic \u2018She walks through History\u2019, Dale places a sweeping melody at the centre to highlight the vocal expressiveness of Raphaela Gromes\u2019 cello playing. \u00a0In \u2018Meditation\u2019, Dale unfolds a harmonically fascinating sound spectrum, with the cello solo rising from its lowest register to extreme heights. \u00a0The adaptation of Adele\u2019s \u2018All I Ask\u2019 pays tribute to one of the greatest soul voices and songwriters of our time, while P!NK\u2019s \u2018Wild Hearts Can\u2019t be Broken\u2019 holds special personal significance for Raphaela Gromes. \u00a0The lyric\u00a0<em>\u201cMy freedom is burning, this broken world keeps turning, I\u2019ll never surrender, there\u2019s nothing but a victory. This is my rally cry.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>could also serve as a motto for the women composers featured on the album.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the album\u2019s production, three new sheet music editions were also created: Henri\u00ebtte Bosmans\u2019 cello sonata will be published by the renowned Henle Verlag. \u00a0Marie Ja\u00ebll\u2019s cello concerto, now including a newly discovered second movement recorded for the first time on this album, will be published in an edition by Julian Riem at furore Verlag. \u00a0Elisabeth Kuyper\u2019s Ballade for Cello and Orchestra, whose original score is lost, has been newly orchestrated by Julian Riem and Raphaela Gromes from the surviving piano version and will be published by Boosey &amp; Hawkes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Fortissima\u2019 is released on September 12<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0by Sony Classical.<\/p>\n<p>TRACKLIST:<\/p>\n<p>CD 1 (feat. Julian Riem, piano)<\/p>\n<p>1. \u2013 4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Henri\u00ebtte Bosmans<\/strong>: Cello Sonata in A Minor<\/p>\n<p>5. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Victoria Yagling<\/strong>: Larghetto<\/p>\n<p>6. \u2013 9. \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Emilie Mayer<\/strong>: Cello Sonata in A Major<\/p>\n<p>10. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>M\u00e9lanie Bonis<\/strong>: M\u00e9ditation<\/p>\n<p>11. \u2013 13.\u00a0<strong>Luise Adolpha Le Beau<\/strong>: Cello Sonata in D Major, op. 17<\/p>\n<p>14. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Adele<\/strong>: All I ask<\/p>\n<p>CD 2 (feat. Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, conductor: Anna Rakitina)<\/p>\n<p>1. \u2013 4. \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Marie Ja\u00ebll<\/strong>: Cello Concerto in F Major<\/p>\n<p>5. \u2013 11. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Maria Herz<\/strong>: Cello Concerto Op. 10<\/p>\n<p>12. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Elisabeth Kuyper<\/strong>: Ballad for Cello and Orchestra, op. 11<\/p>\n<p>13. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Rebecca Dale<\/strong>: Femmage I \u2013 She Walks Through History\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>14. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>Rebecca Dale<\/strong>: Femmage II \u2013 Meditation for Cello &amp; Orchestra<\/p>\n<p>15. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>P!NK<\/strong>: \u201cWild Hearts Can\u2019t Be Broken\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Published post no.2,644 \u2013 Thursday 4 September 2025<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"wordads-inline-marker\" style=\"display: none;\"\/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;appId=249643311490&version=v2.3\"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source arcana.fm \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>adapted from the press release by Ben Hogwood On September 12th, Sony Classical releases Fortissima, the new double album by cellist Raphaela Gromes with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO),\u00a0conducted by\u00a0Anna Rakitina\u00a0and featuring\u00a0Julian Riem\u00a0on piano: The album is a compelling collection of numerous world premiere recordings featuring works by neglected women composers. \u00a0Their remarkable life stories [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1998054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/New-music-\u2013-Raphaela-Gromes-Fortissima-Sony-Classical.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}