Sony Classical is proud to present ‘Dvorák: Cello Concerto’ by OPUS Klassik award- winning cellist Raphaela Gromes, released on September 13 th on CD. Following the tremendous success of her album "Femmes" (2023), Raphaela Gromes releases a new album, "Dvorák: Cello Concerto", featuring one of the most renowned cello concertos alongside inspiring and moving pieces by Ukrainian composers. It was inspired by Gromes' visit to Kyiv in December 2023, where she performed the Dvorák Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and its chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko, to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

Tsotne Zedginidze is a descendant of Niko Sulkhanishvili, considered one of the greatest Georgian composers of all time, and a renowned pedagogue. Recording on our joint label Verbier Festival Gold, the prodigious talent Tsotne Zedginidze, born in 2009, releases the full recording of his debut at the Verbier Festival in 2022. He is not only a virtuosic pianist, but also a composer and has been heralded by some great musicians such as Daniel Barenboim and Giya Kancheli as one of the most exceptionally gifted musicians of the century. The album contains works by Debussy, Schoenberg and Bartók as well as two original compositions by the artist himself.

The passion that is the root of Stella Almondo’s character permeates this first studio recording. Born in Monaco in 2006, a disciple of Amédée Briggen in Nice, then of Igor Lazko in Paris, Stella Almondo proclaims here her unconditional love of music, an art that she perceives as the quintessence of love and which allows her to explore in depth, as she did from a very young age, the bewildering diversity of emotions and human experiences. Throughout this recital, Stella Almondo delights in the most lyrical moments, her crystalline sound radiating in majestically deployed phrases. The fierce energy of her playing, the fluidity of the musical impulses are felt throughout this album, played with conviction and sincerity. This program, which weaves together works by three great composers born in Imperial Russia in the second half of the 19th century, pays homage to the music, this universal language which, through the exaltation the inner world of man, the elevation of the soul, becomes a vehicle for the expression of passionate feelings.

Paradise Cinema is a project led by multi-instrumentalist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet/Szun Waves) with contributions from Khadim Mbaye, Tons Sambe and Laurence Pike. The first, eponymous, Paradise Cinema record, released in 2020, was recorded in Dakar and featured the dense rhythms of Mbalax music combining with Wyllie’s textural saxophone and synth playing.

Oiseaux Tristes is the title of Fazil Say's new recital album of French repertoire. Fazil Say considers Ravel's Miroirs one of the most interesting and comprehensive works in the piano repertoire. He spent months with the piece, finding it difficult to play, but at the same time appreciates the music's powerful and unusual side. Couperin's Suite No.21 in E minor was recommended to him by a friend in Istanbul who is a violinist. Fazil adapted it for the piano.

Chopin, minimalism and Armenian flair come together on Études Mélodiques, the debut DG album from composer-pianist Marie Awadis. Its 12 tracks for solo piano reveal her individual and unique voice, a product of the diverse influences that enrich her music. The classical foundations of her conservatory years persist – with Chopin providing the obvious formal starting point – but they’re interwoven with aspects of everything from Bach to Kancheli, via jazz and the Armenian folk tunes she has known since childhood. And, reflecting a more recent musical discovery, the dual strands of US and European minimalism also play a key role here.

Vocalist and violinist Alice Zawadzki, pianist Fred Thomas (who also plays the vielle and drums here) and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado present a rare alchemy on their trio debut, fusing folk idioms from a multitude of sources with free flowing interplay and fluid structures. Inhabiting their own stylistic realm, the trio encompasses folk song, chamber music, improvisation and acoustic jazz, and on Za Górami they present the full span of their reach in a mesmerizing whole. Ladino traditionals are heard alongside striking renditions of Gustavo Santaolalla’s “Suéltate Las Cintas” and Simón Díaz’s “Tonada De Luna Llena”. The title-lending Polish traditional “Za Górami” is performed in a poignant interpretation by Zawadzki and the Renaissance piece “Je Suis Trop Jeunette” finds a kindred spirit in Fred Thomas’s monody-inspired setting of James Joyce’s in “Gentle Lady”. The album was recorded at the Auditorio Stelio Molo in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.