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INSEPARABLE QUARTET: (L-R)the Raro Ensemble is composed of Razvan Popovici, Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg, Diana Ketler,and Alexander Sitkovetsky. (Serban Mestecanenau)
Presenting and producing classical music helps to pass on the great traditions, but developing and experimenting with them spells a real revolution. This is what the four young musical masters from the Raro Ensemble will demonstrate at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 16 as part of the SoNoRo Festival on Tour Program.
Razvan Popovici, a co-founder and viola player in the ensemble, shared with The Epoch Times his feelings and his outlook on classical music before the Manhattan debut.
“I play viola in the ensemble—a very important role—as viola consolidates the group in both the musical and personal sense. Usually, perhaps due to the simple fact that viola has a little less notes to play than the other instruments, viola players have more time and energy left to devote themselves to the management and human contacts—this is definitely a case with our group.”
The young violist believes that chamber music is the way to speak to modern audiences in the most intimate way.
“We all believe that chamber music is really our passion, where we bring together individual experiences and differences and find the common language.”
FULL OF PASSION: Razvan Popovici (Serban Mestecanenau)
Razvan Popovici founded the Raro Ensemble in 2004, together with the distinguished pianist Diana Ketler. They had met years ago and were united by their common passion for chamber music.
“We wanted to form a flexible group, inviting other young enthusiastic musicians to join our projects.”
Soon the duo was complemented by the cellist Bernhard Hedenborg and violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, close friends for long time. Bernhard, Diana, and Razvan were all students at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. Austria and, as students, often talked about the future and the possibility of playing together.
“The core of our group is a piano quartet, but we believe that our strength lies in the fact that we can be very flexible and go from a duo up to an octet. We are a very international group—Diana and Sasha live in London, Bernhard is based in Vienna, and I live in Germany. This means that every rehearsing session has to be intensive and very effective!”
FABULOUS MEZO-SOPRANO: Roxana Constantinescu. (Marius Baragan)
Razvan said that all Raro members have busy solo careers, and some of them teach in prestigious music schools—for example, Diana Ketler is a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
What is more, Raro Ensemble is resident to the SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, Romania; the Chiemgauer Musikfruehling Festival in Traunstein, Germany; and the Kobe Music Festival in Japan.
“This is a unique opportunity that we created to be able to develop innovative programs not just for individual concerts, but for a series of performances which sometimes have a common theme or use new concepts, such as working with DJs, VJs, writers, and actors.”
The Carnegie Hall Debut
The performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City is part of the SoNoRo and Raro on Tour program which includes concerts at the Musashino Hall in Tokyo, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, and Wigmore Hall in London during the 2009/2010 season.
“The debut at Carnegie Hall is a very important moment in every musician’s life—the tradition, the history, the very atmosphere all bring an enormous sense of excitement mixed with responsibility.”
At the prestigious stage in Manhattan, Raro Ensemble will be joined by the fabulous mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, who was born in Romania and is currently combining her work at the Vienna State Opera with a busy international career.
The program on Feb. 16 will feature piano quartets by Robert Schumann and Peteris Vasks, as well as George Enescu’s songs.
Razvan explains that Schumann’s “Piano quartet in e-flat major, op. 47,” is one of the most popular chamber works of the Romantic era.
“It combines sparkling energy with soulful, intimate melodies, and the famous Andante is one of the most beautiful slow movements Schumann ever composed.”
For the Raro Ensemble, the “Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello” by the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks is of special importance. They worked together with the composer and premiered the “Quartet” in Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland. In Razvan’s words, Vasks is one the most famous Baltic composers of recent years; his works have been performed by the best soloists, orchestras, and choirs in the world.
“His music has a truly universal appeal; it is absolutely honest and is charged with passion. It brings the message of hope and faith. We love playing the Quartet, and it always leaves a profound effect on the audience.”
According to the Raro Ensemble’s core figure, the songs of Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu are little jewels and deserve to be performed more often.
“The combination of the Romanian folk tunes and medieval modes gives them a special flavor; the delicate piano writing underlines the beauty of the French poetry."
SoNoRo Festival—The Romanian Music Ambassador to the World
Razvan Popovici founded the SoNoRo Festival four years ago and in no time it became the largest and the most important event of its kind in Romania.
Through the years the festival, held each November in three different cities in Romania—Bucharest, Cluj and Iasi—has presented exciting programs by musicians who are among the brightest young stars today.
Musical styles span from Baroque and Classical, to klezmer and tango, and include masterpieces of chamber repertoire and modern compositions. The festival has been honored by luminaries like Mark Padmore, Gilles Apap, Daishin Kashimoto, Adrian Brendel, Konstantin Lifschitz, and Michaela Ursuleasa.
SoNoRo also founded an educational project, “Interferenze,” which selects and gives scholarships to the best young Romanian musicians. The workshops take place in Cetate on the Danube shore, and in Montepulciano in Italy.
“One can honestly say that SoNoRo was a revolution on the classical music scene in Romania.”
According to Razvan Popovici, the festival created a huge wave of enthusiasm and support from the audiences and the media. The whole experience was absolutely exhilarating.
“We feel that we must share this success with the audiences abroad. We are proud to become ambassadors of the SoNoRo, the ideas it represents, and obviously, of Romania.”
Now Razvan, Diana, Sasha, and Bernhard are looking ahead toward their next challenge: a Spring recital at Wigmore Hall in London and a debut at the Musikverein in Vienna in May.
The second one is quite an intriguing project in which the Austrian actor Karl Markovics will take part. He played the star role in the Oscar-winning movie The Counterfeiters in 2008 which won for best foreign-language film. This time he will narrate, and Raro musicians will play in a concert based on Bulgakov’s novel, Master and Margarita.
The music in this extraordinary performance will include works by Russian composers and modern tango arrangements together with a famous bandoneonist from Buenos Aires, the protégé of Astor Piazzolla, Marcelo Nisinman.
Later in May, the Raro Ensemble will make its first appearance in Vietnam.
For more information about Raro Ensemble, please visit http://www.ensembleraro.com. For more information about SoNoRo Festival, please visit: http://www.sonoro.ro.
