Spark FOLK TUNES

Since the foundation in 2007, Spark has quickly risen from a surprisingly fresh indie chamber music ensemble to one of Germany’s most promising classical music exports. In summer 2011, Spark has been awarded the prestigious ECHO Klassik in the category “classics without borders” for the debut album “Downtown Illusions”.

With “Folk Tunes”, Spark presents its debut with Deutsche Grammophon. On this new album, the five musicians remain true to form. Once again, they create an exciting blend of old and new, transporting folk tunes into the twenty-first century with a radical new slant. The five virtuosos move effortlessly between the most diverse musical styles, combining the old masters and contemporary avant-garde, minimal music, captivating rhythms and film scores. Together they present a chamber music that ignites passion. Together they spark. (Joanne Rile) 

  

Hailed by the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT as “chamber music for the Facebook generation”, the Spark sound encapsulates the life experience of the 21st century. Fast cuts, juxtapositioning and juggling of the most varied eras and styles, the art of surprise and the delight in associative illusion expressed in music: all these things characterize the style of the Classical Band. Old jostles with new, the lines between serious and light music are blurred, Baroque masterpieces are introduced to young contemporaries, Classical-Romantic repertoire enjoys a thrilling remix and stereotypes are taken in hand for the pure delight of rubbing them up the wrong way. The Wiener Zeitung speaks of “refreshing soundscapes wrapped up in a concept that defies convention.” “You won’t find a cooler combination of clamour and cantilena”, writes Der Tagesspiegel. The daily paper DIE WELT dubs Spark a “top-notch band” and the Badisches Tagblatt calls the five musicians “the intrepid young pioneers of the classical scene.” The Dutch daily De Volkskrant numbers Spark among the very few ensembles “who have the potential to convincingly combine influences from pop and dance with classical music” and the American Record Guide describes the group as “a genuine classical music phenomenon not unlike Yo Yo Ma or the Kronos Quartet, but even more vital.”