Raphaela Gromes has been acclaimed for her highly virtuosic, brilliant, and passionately expressive cello playing. What also sets this exceptional musician apart is her delight in hunting for musical treasures. With her latest releases on Sony Classical, she has delighted critics and audiences alike by recording world premieres of pieces by Richard Strauss and Julius Klengel. Her album Offenbach received the Opus Klassik 2020 award. For her new album Imagination, Raphaela chose music that gives pride of place to imaginary worlds: music based on stories, on fairy tales. This broad selection of works includes a waltz from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Sleeping Beauty, a “Fairy Tale Narrative” by Robert Schumann, the “Evening Prayer” from Humperdinck’s popular fairy-tale opera Hansel and Gretel, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” and other dreamy, magical, and highly poetic pieces by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904), and Franz Liszt (1811-1886). Imagination also features lesser-known works by David Popper, Paul Juon, and rarities such as “Märchenstunde” by composer Margarete Schweikert, and “Forgotten Fairy Tales” by New Yorker Edward McDowell. Most of the pieces are newly arranged by Julian Riem, Raphaela’s duo partner, for cello and piano, as well as for trio with piano and for a complementary quartet of harps and saxophones. Raphaela Gromes recorded the arrangements with Julian Riem and musician friends such as Daniels Dodds (violin), Arcis Saxophone Quartet, and Anaïs Gaudemard (harp). Raphaela Gromes came up with the idea for this album during a hike in spring 2020 - when she came across a particularly enchanted spot in a forest at dusk. “The sky was reflected in the pond, and the backlighting made a magical glow appear around the reeds and flowers, as if elves and fairies were floating in the light above the water,” says Raphaela Gromes. “David Popper’s ‘Dance of the Elves’ came to mind. I was immediately inspired and full of energy, and when I got home, I immediately set out in search of other music that would take me into the world of magic and fantasy.” The album ends with “The Shire” from The Lord of the Rings and “Leia’s theme” from Star Wars, both recorded in a new version for cello and piano.