Orava CD

Deutsche Grammophon Australia is thrilled to announce the signing and debut album release of the country's most promising young string ensemble: the Orava Quartet. Consisting of members Daniel Kowalik, David Dalseno (violins), Thomas Chawner (viola), and Karol Kowalik (cello). The Quartet has been hailed as the 'future of Australian chamber music' (The Australian), having arrived 'not merely on the international scene, but somewhere near its apex' (Australian Stage).

For its debut album, the Orava Quartet invites the listener on an emotive journey across a century of Russian music, from the lyrical Romanticism of Tchaikovsky's first string quartet in D major, Op. 11 – which includes the famous Andante cantabile second movement – to the little-known fragmented string quartet of Rachmaninov, in which only two movements have survived, to the troubled and oppressed world of 1960s Soviet Russia in which Shostakovich wrote his eighth string quartet, Op. 110. The incomplete Rachmaninov quartet is recorded here for the first time ever on the famous Deutsche Grammophon label. 

Also included on this album is a special bonus track featuring Australian soprano Greta Bradman, singing Rachmaninov's famous Vocalise, arranged especially for this recording for soprano and double string quartet by Australian composer Richard Mills AM.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Tracklisting:

PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY 

String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11
1. Moderato e semplice
2. Andante cantabile
3. Scherzo. Allegro non tanto e con fuoco – Trio
4. Finale. Allegro giusto – Allegro vivace

SERGEI RACHMANINOV 

Two Movements for String Quartet
(String Quartet No. 1 unfinished)
5. Romance. Andante espressivo
6. Scherzo. Allegro

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110
7. Largo
8. Allegro molto
9. Allegretto
10. Largo
11. Largo