Divine Art Records

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach

  • The Harmonious Thuringian (Harpsichord)

    The Harmonious Thuringian (Harpsichord)

    Thuringia is a region of Germany in which both Bach and Handel grew up. It was here that a distinctive form of harpsichord was built, very different to most others, with a wonderful tone. This was most likely the type of intrument with which the composers were familiar. One survives and has been replicated beautifully by David Evans, this being its recording debut. Possibly we are hearing these great baroque works more accurately presented than ever before.

    Leading early-music specialist Terence Charlston plays music by the relatively young J S Bach and G F Handel and several of their contemporaries from the late 17th and very early 18th centuries.

    Charlston plays another unique instrument in 16th and 17th century music: “Mersenne’s Clavichord” DDA 25134.

  • Mozart, Beethoven, Bach-Busoni Piano Works

    Mozart, Beethoven, Bach-Busoni Piano Works

    A British pianist specializing in the late baroque and classical periods, Jill Crossland has acquired an impressive reputation for her new insights into even the most familiar and hackneyed of ‘core repertoire’ works. Penguin Guide to CDs has said “a natural Mozartean … wonderfully lyrical Beethoven”. Here, Jill gives that special treatment to the ‘Moonlight’ with a beautiful and fresh reading; she presents three Bach-Busoni chorale preludes in full Romantic style and sparkles in delightful Mozart.

  • Absolutely! – Music for string quartet and jazz soloists

    Absolutely! – Music for string quartet and jazz soloists

    When issued, this was our disc of the year, this is so new, different and unique we just love it… not mundane and simplistic crossover but a true fusion and blend of soft jazz solos and improvisations, over standard ‘straight’ classical playing: bring together the top performers Uwe Steinmetz, composer and saxophonist, jazz violinist Mads Tolling and the renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet. Beautiful, atmospheric and a wonderful experience from beginning to end……

  • J S Bach – 4 Klavierkonzerte

    J S Bach – 4 Klavierkonzerte

    Bach’s Concertos for keyboard and chamber orchestra are rightly acknowledged as masterpieces of the genre, and among the first truly great concertos of the Baroque/Early Classical period. They are performed with a wide variety of instrumentation, and here Peter Seivewright plays a modern Steinway Model D grand piano, accompanied by a baroque size ensemble, also using modern instruments, but in the authentic one-to-a-part style. The continuo here is provided, again authentically, by the Spanish guitar, which gives a warmer sound than the more common harpsichord.

  • Bach: The Art of Fugue

    Bach: The Art of Fugue

    Bach’s Art of Fugue is a great musical enigma; left strangely unfinished, it is thought perhaps to have been intended not for performance but as a definitive guide to the writing of fugues, or a personal musical message meant as the composer’s greatest legacy … in any event it is a supreme masterpiece and here is given a brilliant and individual interpretation, in which Diana Boyle (whose Metier CD of the 48 Preludes and Fugues, Book II is also highly praised) brings out classical-style emphasis and phrasing, bring the music alive more than in traditional dry and academic accounts. The recording omits the optional ‘canons’ but includes the ‘Inversus’ sections of Contrapuncti 12 and 13. Check out the artist index for more celebrated recordings by Diana Boyle of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms and Chopin.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach Organ Works

    Johann Sebastian Bach Organ Works

    This splendid recital of works by Johann Sebastian Bach has been produced in collaboration with Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, to display the fine and distinctive sounds of the instrument. The booklet contains a history of the organ and its full specification. David Hamilton’s second CD, as with his recent Buxtehude album, shows a performer with skill and musicianship and also a deep empathy with the works of the baroque masters.

  • Bach: The Six Partitas

    Bach: The Six Partitas

    Though published as Bach’s Opus 1, the Partitas were composed as Bach was approaching 40 and working in Leipzig. Their varied and changeable movement styles differentiate them considerably from the structure of works such as the French and English Suites, which are otherwise like sets of dance movements.

    Judith Lambden is a well established Australian pianist with a long-established reputation as an interpreter of Bach. In this, her first CD for Divine Art, she gives us all a chance to re-evaluate splendid works which (in terms of Bach’s output) are relatively little known. At almost 80 minutes on each CD, a true high-value set at mid-price.

  • Jill Crossland Live at Restoration House

    Jill Crossland Live at Restoration House

    This CD is a recording of a live concert given at Restoration House, Rochester, on the 1824 Jirikowsky fortepiano. A fine recital by a recognised baroque specialist.

  • Bach: The Art of Fugue

    Bach: The Art of Fugue

    THE ROTH QUARTET
    play the string quartet arrangement of Bach’s finest masterpiece composed by Roy Harris and M D H Norton.
    This historically important document also includes the conjectural completion composed and played by Sir Donald Tovey.
    Recorded 1934/1935 and digitally re-mastered by Pristine Audio.

  • Fifty Years of Music Making

    Fifty Years of Music Making

    This is a special album.It was produced as a limited edition product to celebrate 50 years in performing by Peter Katin, one of the great names of British pianism and includes recordings personally chosen by Katin to typify the composers and works which with he became most closely associated.

  • Bach Transcriptions and Australian Piano Music

    Bach Transcriptions and Australian Piano Music

    The first recording for some twenty years by a performer whose pioneering version of the Bliss Piano Concerto for EMI in the 1960s (now re-issued on Diversions DDV 24106) drew undiluted praise. Trevor plays the great Bach/Busoni transcriptions, Myra Hess’ version of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and (for the first time on CD) works by Australian composers Margaret Sutherland Felix Werder and Nigel Butterley.