Spark - Bach, Berio, Beatles

"Chamber music at the highest artistic level and right at the cutting edge" - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"You won't find a cooler combination of glamour and cantilenas" - Der Tagesspiegel
"A first class band" - Die Welt

With the following program B-B-B,  SPARK re-thinks the classics. The quintet places Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart and their peers in a fresh new context, forging links with the sounds and lifestyle of the present day. Classical at heart, outwardly wilful, inquisitive and nonconformist, the five musicians pitch their tent on the open ground between classical works, minimal music, electro and avant-garde.

With enthusiasm and abandon, styles are mixed and a galaxy of sonic options is explored – given that their well-stocked arsenal of instruments offers over 40 different recorders, violin, viola, violoncello, melodica and piano.

The classical band SPARK  is cherished by its fans above all for its thrilling, highly energetic live performances, which see the five talented musicians getting physical on stage with ebullient vitality and the pulsating power of a rock band. Together they present music that ignites passion.
Together they spark !

Spark & Valer Sabadus - Closer to paradise

"Valer Sabadus and Spark make music that is both original and great and they create new horizons" - Manheimer Morgen
"Refreshing world of sound, packaged in an unconventional concept" - Wiener Zeitung
"Spark shines across all genre boundaries with a breathtaking musical performance"

Since the foundation, this innovating band SPARK has quickly risen from a surprisingly fresh indie chamber music ensemble into 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 that album, the five talented high educated 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.
The classical band SPARK is cherished by its fans above all for its thrilling, highly energetic live performances, which see the five talented musicians getting physical on stage with ebullient vitality and the pulsating power of a rock band. Together they present music that ignites passion. Together they spark !

In the program CLOSER TO PARADISE, the  fantastic collaboration of this quintet with the international rising star, countertenor Valer Sabadus sounds like musical sparks: music without borders, performance at the highest level, magical modernity. Sabadus lets you hear why he is famous and so in demand on the hotspots of the baroque music field worldwide.
He has a beautiful and voluminous voice in the alto with male timbre, well-managed, creative embellishments in baroque style, unobtrusive and present at the same time. Sabadus sings with emotional power, moving, stylish, terrific. 
Sensational fireworks guaranteed !

Valer Sabadus & Spark, the classical band - Closer to Paradise. (Albumtrailer)

Sevak Avanesyan - Black

Sevak Avanesyan’s technical skills – including his cello-sound, his rhythmic control, his perfect intonation, his natural feeling for tempi – are obvious to anyone who hears him play, but he has particularly impressed me with his deep musicality, and through his constant readiness to search and to find the real meaning of the music behind the notes.”  -
Andrey Boreyko, Music Director of Artis - Naples


Autumn 2020. The 30-year-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan flared up unexpectedly. This 44-days of war was witnessed from very close-by by the Armenian-Belgian cellist Sevak Avanesyan.

On the evening of Thursday, October 8, 2020, the dome of Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was hit by a shell, which also severely damaged the building's interior. Soon after the explosion, Sevak Avanesyan sat among the rubble, playing music to mourn. A poignant video of Avanesyan playing "Krunk" by the Armenian composer Komitas, went around the world!
After six weeks of bloody armed conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Russia has brokered a full ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but leaves the region short of a clear and stable peace.

With ‘BLACK’, Sevak Avanesyan takes up the rough reality that he experienced at first hand. Music through the eyes of a soldier. He invites us to dialogue and brings symbolic 44 'solo cello work by Bach over Ligeti, to Armenian work by Komitas. Haunting and pure. A challenging and artistic performance for both performer and listener.

This program goes hand in hand with unique images that you've never seen before. The war through the eyes of a musician!

Alon Sariel - Iberian Fantasy

The „Iberian Fantasy“ program leads us to Spain's dazzling composers elite of the 19th and 20th century.
Names like Albéniz, Granados, de Falla and Tárrega are counted among those masters who gave Spain an independent and acclaimed voice in music history. At a time of Europe's national movements, they bestowed the world with fascinating traditional melodies, vivacious rhythms, folk song elements and the musical depiction of the unique Spanish landscape! Isaac Albéniz, „father“ of a distinctive Spanish school that developed from the middle of the19th century on, became the first master in blending the dominating French style with Spanish folk rhythms and melodies.

Alon Sariel masters his instrument from a range of sweet and silvery sounds to lively and virtuosic outbreaks in order to bring the Spanish soul to life!

•    Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) - Suite española op. 47  |  N° 3: Sevilla  - N° 5: Asturias
•    Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) -  Recuerdos de la Alhambra 
•    Enrique Granados (1867-1916) -  Danza española |  N°5 : Andaluza
•    Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
     Pavane pour une infante défunte M.19
     Vocalise-étude en forme de Habanera M.51
•    Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) - Danza española from „La vida breve“

Vitaly Pisarenko & Henry Kramer - 4-Hands program

Because of the close physical proximity of the musicians, the piano duet is the most intimate form of chamber music. A fascinating genre!
With the exception of Schubert and Brahms, none of the great composers devoted a significant portion of their output to the piano duet. Schubert's great masterpiece was the Fantasia in F minor, a tragic drama unequalled by anything else in the duet repertoire. Schubert composed it in 1828, the last year of his life, and dedicated it to his pupil, Karoline Esterházy.
Fortunately, we do have many fine four-hand piano compositions from the early Romantic period. In the mid-to-late 1860s, Brahms produced his Hungarian Dances and Sixteen Waltzes. These are still popular, as is Bizet's Jeux d'enfants (1871), a charming set of twelve miniatures. Around the fifth decade of the twentieth century, Samuel Barber produced his composition Souvenir Suite Op.28, in the original arrangement, for one piano, four hands, later orchestrated for a ballet.

Vitaly Pisarenko, winner of the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht
Henry Kramer, winner of the Second Prize at the 2016 Queen Elisabeth Competition