Welcome to the Web page of "Rastrelli Cello Quartet", one of the most unique classical ensembles. Why unique? Everybody knows the Finnish cello quartet "Apocalyptica", but it is only an exception to the rule, because they specialize only in playing heavy metal rock. Our aspiration is to prove that it is possible to play any kind of music on the cello - from baroque to rock, especially between the genres, becoming more and more uncertain in modern music.

Each of us learned to say the word "cello" before we learned to say our own names. However, since meeting in Stuttgart (Germany) in spring 2002, and later, performing together, we ended up forgetting the name of our instrument. Our ensemble's repertoire consists entirely of transcriptions, music not intended to be performed on the cello. Our goal is to make the listener hear the saxophone playing in "The Melody" by Sokolov, to make a ragtime-battered piano sound in a silent movie, to let them hear Piazzola play the bandoneon again...

Why "Rastrelli"? Three of us were born in St.Petersburg (Russia), where we spent our childhood and student years, so we took the name of the genius Italian architect who was invited to build the new capital of Russia by the King some 300 years ago.

Kira Kraftzoff, Kirill Timofeev, Misha Degtjareff and Sergio Drabkine established the quartet in April 2002 in Stuttgart, and shortly thereafter recorded two tunes - "The Melody" by Sokolov and "Rhapsody-Tango" on the theme of Oscar Strock. After a number of concerts the quartet was invited by the company Ars-Verona to record an album by Amphion Record. Since 2002 we recorded two new albums "Cello in Jazz" and "Cello in Classic"

You can hear some parts of this album in the "Audio" page.

Man has always wanted to overcome gravity and learn to fly. Our dream is to forget that it is only the cello that we are playing and learn to reincarnate.

How well we achieve this aim is up to you to judge.

To start