Divine Art Records

Genre: Orchestral

  • Turning Towards You – music by Robin Walker

    Turning Towards You – music by Robin Walker

    Chosen as one of his ‘Records of the Year 2019’by Richard Hanlon (MusicWeb International)

    Robin Walker began his musical life as Head Chorister at York Minster then studied under David Lumsdaine at Durham and Anthony Milner at the Royal College of Music. His early work was seriously modernist but since the 1980s he has worked on an ‘instinctual’ approach involving a relationship with Nature, a sense of Place and our position within it, even including ‘folk-style’ elements – also to some extent informed by studying the music and dance of India.

    Leading soloists and the award winning Manchester Sinfonia present a range of works for solo instruments and the remarkable and inspired Concerto for Violin, Recorder and Strings (‘A Prayer and a Dance of Two Spirits’); the album follows a purely orchestral set recently issued by Toccata.

    John Turner is one of the world’s leading recorder players with a long and distinguished career; Emma McGrath is currently concertmaster/principal violin of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra; Jennifer Langridge is a busy soloist and chamber musician and has been principal cello of Psappha for 24 years. Leon Bosch is an internationally renowned double bass virtuoso with over a dozen solo albums to his name; Min-Jung Kym is a Steinway Artist with a very successful career, having already performed with many leading orchestras and she was pianist of choice of legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci.

  • Vyacheslav Artyomov: Symphony In Spe / Latin Hymns

    Vyacheslav Artyomov: Symphony In Spe / Latin Hymns

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. His music is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice.

    The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective (which to date has received wonderful reviews internationally) is a mix of new recordings and former Melodiya and Boheme releases. This is the tenth album, containing 2018 recordings of two majestic and brilliant works. The Symphony In Spe (In Hope) with concertante violin and cello broke new ground in Artyomov’s writing in its use of polydynamic, ever-changing textures while retaining his deep spirituality.

    Latin Hymns presents four sacred texts in the most virtuosic writing for choir and soloist, not only prayers to the Virgin Mary but recreating her persona in music. The performance by Nadezhda Pavlova is simply stunning.

    NOTE: The digital version of the album has the Symphony (which is in one movement) in a single track. On the CD, the Symphony is indexed into 21 continuous tracks.

  • Jonathan Östlund : Voyages (Download album)

    Jonathan Östlund : Voyages (Download album)

    Jonathan Östlund is a composer from Sweden who has pursued his passion for music with a BA and MA in Composition at the LTU, in Sweden. He has so far completed more than 100 works, including several orchestral pieces, a Piano Concerto and a Violin Concerto, and has been awarded many prizes in international competitions.

    ‘Voyages’, his second release under Divine Art (after ‘Lunaris’, in 2016), is a double album (issued in digital form only), featuring vocal, instrumental and chamber music, as on ‘Lunaris’, while in addition also featuring two orchestral recordings and works for organ. This new album with a focus on nature, enigmatic atmospheres and introspective journeys, is presented by top international soloists, some of whom have given the world premieres of these works.

    Östlund writes music with natural poetic melodies and highly sophisticated harmonies, blending tradition with contemporary expression.

    This album can also be obtained as a double CD (two tracks omitted in order to fit on 2 discs) HERE

  • Vyacheslav Artyomov: In Memoriam and other works

    Vyacheslav Artyomov: In Memoriam and other works

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. His music is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice. The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective is a mix of new recordings and former Melodiya releases. This is the eighth instalment, containing three orchestral works, with an over-arching sorrowful cast – remembering, like his Requiem, the suffering of the Russian peoples under Soviet rule (and for In Memoriam, a tribute to the composer’s mother), and all typifying Artyomov’s true genius as a truly individual composer who can make thoroughly modern music listenable and demanding further regular hearings.

    Three fine orchestras and conductors, and superb soloists, provide a rich and satisfying program of substantial modern orchestral music.

  • Artyomov: A Sonata of Meditations, etc.

    Artyomov: A Sonata of Meditations, etc.

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. Since the fall of the Soviet regime his music has travelled the world to great acclaim. It is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice.

    The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective is a mix of new recordings and former Melodiya releases. It continues with the seventh album containing two works for percussion ensemble and one orchestral – all typifying Artymov’s true genius as a truly individual composer who can make thoroughly modern music listenable and demanding further regular hearings. The three works on this album are all typical of Artyomov’s individual and impressive genius

    Mark Pekarsky leads the first percussion ensemble established in Russia and still the foremost group in that country. They perform A Sonata of Meditations and Totem while Russian-American conductor Virko Baley directs the superb Moscow Philharmonic in A Garland of Recitations.

  • Artyomov: A Symphony of Elegies, etc.

    Artyomov: A Symphony of Elegies, etc.

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. After the fall of the Soviet regime his music has travelled the world to great acclaim. It is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice.

    The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective is a mix of new recordings and former Melodiya releases. It continues with the Symphony of Elegies – a total contrast to his other massive and intense symphonies, being ethereal, generally very quiet and evoking a sense of timelessness.
    The album is completed by two more major works – ‘Awakening’ for violin duo, and ‘Incantations’ featuring the heavenly voice of the late Lydia Davydova with four percussionists. (note that on early Melodiya recordings, this work was described as ‘invocations’). An album full of really inspired masterpieces.

  • Artyomov: The Way to Olympus and other works

    Artyomov: The Way to Olympus and other works

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. After the fall of the Soviet regime his music has travelled the world to great acclaim. It is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice.

    The Divine Art Artyomov Retrospective continues with the magisterial symphony The Way to Olympus, chamber orchestral works and Preludes to Sonnets, Artyomov’s only solo piano work.

    Recorded at the height of achievement of the major Soviet orchestras, conducted by major figures including the universally acclaimed Rozhdestvensky.

  • Vyacheslav Artyomov: Sola Fide

    Vyacheslav Artyomov: Sola Fide

    Vyacheslav Artyomov is considered by many to be Russia’s greatest living composer. After the fall of the Soviet regime his music has travelled the world to great acclaim. It is deep, ultimately spiritual and brilliantly crafted, with influences from the Russian symphonic tradition colored by Mahler, Scriabin, Honegger and Messiaen to name a few – but melded into a unique voice.

    Following the critical acclaim of his first two Divine Art albums, this program includes his Concerto for Chamber Orchestra ‘Tempo Costante’ and two suites from the ballet ‘Sola Fide’ (‘Only by Faith’) which is based on the novel The Road to Calvary by Aleksey Tolstoy; it shares an ethos and much music with Artyomov’s celebrated Requiem hence the choral elements found in the ballet score.

    These premiere recordings herald a series of another 8 albums of music by Artyomov.

  • Nan Schwartz & Brenton Broadstock – Orchestral Music

    Nan Schwartz & Brenton Broadstock – Orchestral Music

    As a woman composer who has carved an enviable reputation inside the crucible of the Hollywood Film Music business, Nan Schwartz nonetheless remains an enigma to orchestras and concert music audiences around the world. This apparent anomaly can, in part, be ascribed to the imbalance in respect to opportunities for women composers generally, but given that Nan is a Grammy winner, 5-time Grammy nominee and seven-time Emmy nominee, it remains perplexing that the classical music world has taken so long to recognize her indisputable genius.

    This album beautifully directed by the eminent Australian conductor, Kevin Purcell, brings to light through these premiere recordings the extraordinary music of this iconic, contemporary, American composer.

    The album further includes the premiere recording of a new Concerto for orchestra composed as a paean to Miles Davis’s 1959 iconic Jazz album, ‘Kind of Blue’, by leading Australian composer, Brenton Broadstock.

    BOOKLET IN ENGLISH, JAPANESE AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE

  • Violin Muse

    Violin Muse

    Seven world premiere recordings of works by British composers with a range of styles but all in a modern but approachable and often very lyrical idiom from the deep and heartfelt Violin Concerto ‘Soft Stillness’ by Guto Puw to the stunningly simple yet beautiful new work from Michael Nyman. Many of these works were specifically written for, and premiered by, Madeleine Mitchell so this is a very special album for her personally as well as being a fine virtuoso concert. Most works on the album are for violin and piano with Nigel Clayton; Cerys Jones appears in the super violin duet ‘Atlantic Drift’ by Judith Weir, and Puw’s Concerto is a BBC recording with the BBCNOW and American conductor Edwin Outwater.

    Madeleine Mitchell is an internationally acclaimed soloist with a fine discography and has been an inspiration to composers and painters, including Gerald Marks who created his artworks ‘The Madeleine Series’ between 1989 and 1991.

    Madeleine Mitchell talks about ‘Violin Muse’ on YouTube here

  • Mind Music

    Mind Music

    An Album for Charitable Support.

    Parkinson's UK
    Proceeds from the sale of this CD are in aid of Parkinson’s UK

    Degenerative brain diseases (Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in particular) cause immense distress to sufferers and their families. This album is released to raise funds for research into cures, through Parkinsons UK. Both the soloists lost parents to these diseases hence their wish to support the research. They have chosen works by composers all of whom were similarly afflicted – either in themselves or their close families. Mendelssohn died at a very young age due to degenerative disease, Strauss wrote his work during a period of severe influenza and depression, and Kevin Malone and John Adams struggled to cope when their fathers both succumbed to Alzheimers.

    The works here are serious, often poignant, but also humorous and full of hope. A delightful performance by the two clarinet soloists is bolstered by the excellent Northern Chamber Orchestra.

  • Artyomov: On the Threshold of a Bright World

    Artyomov: On the Threshold of a Bright World

    The foremost composer living in Russia today, Artyomov is producing works in the grand symphonic and post-Romantic traditions, unquestionably masterpieces of the modern age. The ‘Threshold’ symphony, part of his tetralogy ‘Symphony of the Way’ is typically underpinned by his deep spirituality but is universal and cosmic in scope. ‘Ave Atque Vale’ is another major work – for percussion and orchestra, while ‘Ave, Crux Alba’ is a far more traditional (and very beautiful) choral piece.

    A companion CD contains the symphony ‘Gentle Emanation’ and ‘Tristia II’ for piano and orchestra (DDA 25144). The Artyomov series continues with a further nine albums.