Divine Art Records

Period: 20th Century

  • Shades of Night: a piano recital by Andrew Brownell

    Shades of Night: a piano recital by Andrew Brownell

    Step back to a time when the night was an antithesis to the clarity of illumined day. In the especially fertile imaginations of the 19th-century Romantic composers, this was a time when the world gave itself over to mystery and magic.

    These works explore the “otherness” of night and its potential for strangeness. The album also focuses on the theme of passion, mostly from the Romantic period.

    In the especially fertile imaginations of the 19th-century Romantic composers, this was a time when, shielded from the gaze of the Almighty, the world gave itself over to mystery and magic: lovers met for forbidden trysts, revelers drank and cavorted through the small hours, and spirits walked the earth.

    In this album, Brownell hopes to transport you out of our sterile, modern understanding of night and into the stranger, more interesting reality it must have been for most of human history. Described by Musical Opinion as “potentially one of the most significant pianists of his generation”, since winning 1st Prize at the 2005 J.N. Hummel Competition (Bratislava), he has achieved widespread recognition as “one of the foremost Hummel interpreters of our time” (Hudobný Život).

    Brownell’s performances have been seen and heard on BBC radio and television, Classic FM, NPR, CBC, ORF, and RBB KulturRadio. He has been soloist with orchestras such as the Hallé, Royal Liverpool
    Philharmonic, and Calgary Philharmonic.

  • Prokofiev: Cinderella & Romeo and Juliet Ballet Suites

    Prokofiev: Cinderella & Romeo and Juliet Ballet Suites

    Of the major works of Sergei Prokofiev, none (apart perhaps from Peter and the Wolf) have become so well loved by a wide audience as the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. From the stage productions, to the orchestral suites, to the piano versions, many of these pieces are universally recognised.

    In the 1950s, four pieces from each ballet were arranged for clarinet and piano by Bronislav Prorvich, a clarinettist with the Bolshoi Theatre. Strangely, so far as we know, these sparkling arrangements have never previously been recorded. Ian Scott and his producer Malcolm McMillan have added a further 12 movements from the ballets, many of which strongly featured the clarinet in the original orchestral version. This has resulted in a lovely collection of pieces that are at once very familiar but also heard in a completely new light.

    SUPPORTED BY THE OLEG PROKOFIEV TRUST

  • The Whistling Book

    The Whistling Book

    This album derives from a 1998 release from Forsyth Brothers (Manchester) featuring works published in their Recorder Catalogue. It was then called ‘John and Peter’s Whistling Book’. For this new version, remastered in 2022, several extra tracks have been added. The album features the recorder at its most scintillatingly bright – most of the music here, though very recent, is melodic, tuneful, often in dance form, and witty – for example Alan Bullard’s suite inspired by favorite foods from around the world. Two small forays into modernism are provided by superb pieces by Richard Whalley and Kevin Malone.

    John Turner is one of the world’s most respected and skilful recorderists, with a long history of recordings, publications and premieres, including regular appearances with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Early Music Consort with David Munrow, English Chamber Orchestra and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
    Peter Lawson has also enjoyed a long and illustrious career; he taught at Chetham’s School of Music for almost 40 years and has a large and impressive discography to his name.

  • Pictures of Light – music by William Baines

    Pictures of Light – music by William Baines

    William Baines is one of those exceptionally gifted composers whose music still remains little known to the general music-loving public.
    Deeply rooted in Nature, it shows influences from Debussy, Scriabin, Chopin, Liszt and Ravel and has totally assimilated those exemplars into truly mature and distinguished works all his own. This album includes a number of impressionist piano solos and also the first recording (and first performance) of the Five Songs, presented by veteran tenor Gordon Pullin, who has long been associated with the music of Baines. Duncan Honeybourne has become one of the most sought after of British pianists with a sparkling discography and is totally at home in this picturesque music. This album is produced also in memory of Baines on the centenary of his death.

    The album concludes with ‘At the Grave of William Baines’ by fellow Yorkshireman Robin Walker – a fitting tribute by a living composer with similar abilities to draw inspiration from the world around him.

  • Violetta Fialko – Ciccolini Prizewinner Recital

    Violetta Fialko – Ciccolini Prizewinner Recital

    Violetta Fialko is an exceptionally talented Ukrainian pianist, who has been signed by Divine Art for her commercial recording debut, as winner of the 2021 Ciccolini Prize for Pianists, a new international competition which had to be held ‘virtually’ due to the Covid pandemic. At the time of writing this, Violetta is living in a part of Ukraine which has so far not been desecrated, having been evacuated from her home town. The audio masters arrived from the studio in Kyiv only days before the Russian attack, for which we are thankful, and we do not yet know if the studio still exists. Leaving the war aside, we have a brilliantly talented pianist who has chosen a varied and highly virtuosic program of Russian Romantic classics (though Prokofiev, to give him his due, was born in Ukraine).

    Violetta was born in 1997 into a family of musicians. She began to attend music school at the age of 5, and at 9 entered the Lysenko Specialized Music School in Kyiv, graduating with top honors in 2016 and entering the Kyiv Conservatory. She won many prizes, culminating in the 2021 Ciccolini Prize which has led to this album being made. She worked (until the current war began) as a teacher of piano performance and music theory, and is also a volunteer and program host on the Evangelical Radio station ‘Emmanuel’.

    We commend this album as the debut of a fantastic pianist and also in support of her home country and peace and freedom everywhere.

  • The fabulous Sir John: A tribute to Sir John Manduell

    The fabulous Sir John: A tribute to Sir John Manduell

    Sir John Manduell (1928-2017) was a pivotal figure in British music – as composer, BBC producer, first principal of the Royal Northern College of Music and founder of the European Opera Centre. Beloved and revered by musicians, yet someone whose name is shamefully little known outside the music and broadcasting professions.

    This album is a sequel to ‘Songs for Sir John’ (DDA 25210) which in tribute to Sir John presented works by 16 composers from more than one generation. On this new album we present music by Sir John himself, and by William Alwyn, Michael Berkeley, Adam Gorb and Richard Stoker, all well crafted works which will give great enjoyment as well as perhaps inspiring musicians to add them to their repertoire.

    Even without the Manduell connection this is a wonderfully constructed program of new chamber and vocal music. The performers, like Sir John, are based in and around Manchester, England, which is a dynamic ‘hotspot’ for fine musical creativity.

  • Visions and Ventures

    Visions and Ventures

    Works from three different musical eras seemingly unconnected – but in the mind of Pianist Stephen Beville very linked – hence the album title – as inspired by Visions and Ventures: Bach always a visionary musically and guided by his religious faith; Beethoven venturing into Romanticism with revolutionary ideas and optimism for a better world; Prokofiev caught up in the unrest in pre-revolutionary Russia, sketching pieces to escape the political turmoil – at least in his imagination. The Visions Fugitives come from a composer in his mid-twenties, just graduated and full of musical confidence, and are typically Prokofievian while some contain radical modernist elements. The Beethoven Sonata is likewise the work of a young 26-year old. It is full of playful invention and optimism and is perhaps one his most appealing works.

    Stephen Beville was acclaimed in 2010 as ‘one of the most talented young musicians to emerge from the UK’. (Frankfurter Neue Press). His interpretations have been compared to Arrau, Rubinstein and Ax. Rock-solid technique and virtuosity while avoiding showmanship have informed his playing from student days at the Junior Royal Academy in London from age 11, tutoring from the great Peter Katin, and postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in England and the Hochschule für Music in Karlsruhe. He has performed in many international festivals.

    As well as a firm grounding in classical and 20th century repertoire, Stephen Beville is also a busy composer, his works having been performed by several leading new-music ensembles.

    Stephen’s debut CD ‘Stephen Beville in Karlsruhe’ was given warm reception on its release:
    “Beville is a thoughtful artist, whose accounts of each of the established masterpieces here are well worth hearing.” – Robert Matthew-Walker (Musical Opinion)
    “An intelligent, controlled and searching pair of hands quite capable of imparting power as well as finesse.” – Gary Lemco (Audiophile Audition)

  • Songs of Love

    Songs of Love

    Jenny Q Chai is a phenomenon… a pianist of incredible talent, at home in core repertoire and a champion and noted interpreter of 20th century and contemporary works, as well as working to develop new interactive music score software and teaching in China and the USA. She founded and manages the Face Art Institute, a Shanghai-based body devoted to international exchange of music and musicians and served on the board of Ear to Mind, the contemporary music organization in New York. Her other work as well as her concert schedule is too extensive to be listed here; she is currently based both in Shanghai and in California where she is a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley.
    The New Yorker described Jenny as “A pianist whose dazzling facility is matched by her deep musicality”. On top of all that she also projects a modern and liberated self image.

    Jenny has a special connection with Robert Schumann, whose work she learned from her esteemed first teacher at the Curtis Institute, the late Seymour Lipkin, with whom she studied from the ages of 12 to 19. She has a special love for Kreisleriana which she says never grows old but ’ lives inside of you’. Hence the title, “Songs of Love”.

    This album which presents Kreisleriana together with two movements by Bach and Ives is Jenny’s tribute to Seymour Lipkin who she calls ‘my music grandpa’. It is also a very fine recital by a superbly talented musician who is gathering fans like a rock star.

  • Found in Dreams

    Found in Dreams

    Helen Habershon is both an accomplished performer and an inspired composer of music which often evokes nature, or human emotions and sensibilities this is music which is ‘easy listening’ and in the light music tradition, and is unpretentious, but never facile: it has deep meaning. Her first two CDs have been highly praised and were Album of the Month and Album of the Week on Classic FM (UK) respectively. Her most recent album, ‘Found in Winter’, released in 2019, has been aired by Classic FM ever since. Helen had an established performing career until a serious injury led her to turn to composing, but she is now once again able to perform. Here she teams up with the successful pianist and arranger John Lenehan, who has appeared on over 70 recordings including several solo albums for Sony.

    For Found in Dreams Helen Habershon and John Lenehan offer a wonderfully diverse collection of repertoire. This includes beautiful arrangements of some of their favourite pieces; a couple of short movements of outstanding clarinet repertoire by Brahms and Finzi and some delightful new compositions of their own. As well as his beautifully crafted arrangements John has also written two lovely pieces to add to Helen’s. The cover design is a dream image from Helen’s five year old grandson.

    Throughout history mankind has been intrigued by the idea of dreams and Helen is no exception. As she says: “It’s interesting that all happenings begin as an idea and in order to get an idea one has to be in a receptive place. When creating I find myself in a kind of timeless space, rather like a daydream. I love the freedom of dreams, anything can happen. There are no boundaries and we are free to explore with no limits. The theme of ‘dreams’ came quite naturally and many of the pieces in the album reflect this.”

  • Tom Hicks: Liszt and Ireland Piano Sonatas

    Tom Hicks: Liszt and Ireland Piano Sonatas

    Hailed as an artist of ‘magnificent pianism’, Guernsey-born pianist Tom Hicks has been praised for his ‘gorgeously creative playing’ that ‘transports the listener to another place and time’. Hicks is a gold medallist in numerous national and international competitions and holds degrees and awards from The University of Manchester, The Royal Northern College of Music, Yale University and Northwestern University, where he now lectures. His first disc featuring John Ireland’s Sarnia, ‘Tom Hicks: Ireland and Tchaikovsky’ has been described as ‘brilliantly evocative’ by Colin Clarke in International Piano, and ‘gorgeously creative’ by Scott Noriega in Fanfare.

    In his first recording for Divine Art, Tom presents stellar performances of two major Sonatas – those of Franz Liszt and John Ireland. A generation apart, both are highpoints of the Romantic and post-Romantic era. This playing puts Hicks at the top of the tree for his bold expressiveness and vision.

    On this album Hicks prefaces the Sonatas with shorter, but equally imaginative and expressive pieces: two Preludes by Stanford, Cortège by Rebecca Clarke, and one of the charming waltzes from the ‘Three-Fours’ Suite by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

    Tom Hicks is also a strong supporter of contemporary composers and his new album of music by British composer Camden Reeves, inspired by the harmonies and rhythms of blues music, will be released in the late spring of 2022 (“Blue Sounds”) – Métier MSV 28604)

  • Heritage

    Heritage

    Violinist Aisha Syed Castro (b.1989) may well be one of the most remarkably gifted musicians to come from the Dominican Republic and the team at Divine Art are tremendously excited to have signed this young virtuoso for an album of works with principally American and Latin roots. She has been described as a ’virtuoso’ by the press on three continents, and has not only engaged in a busy and highly successful performing career but is tireless in her work for the underprivileged. Aisha is the Honorary Cultural Goodwill Ambassador of the Dominican Republic and works devotedly through charitable ventures (some of which she founded) to bring classical music to the underprivileged and socially disadvantaged.

    In her new album, Aisha has brought together a program of works that have special meaning for her, from Spanish/ Latin/ American sources, including extracts from ‘West Side Story’, works by the Dominican maestro Rafael Solano, music from black composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and William Grant Still, and well-known little masterpieces by Piazzolla, Granados and Albeníz. A special piece for the artist is ‘Aisha’s Dance’ from Khachaturian’s Gayaneh ballet, which she has played since she was 15. This recording was made in April 2019 in England and is a sparkling and exotic program of masterworks.

    Aisha’s musical partner here is pianist Martin Labazevitch who also arranged the closing track, a medley of hymns dear to Aisha including a beautiful rendering of the timeless ‘Amazing Grace’. Martin is a Steinway artist who has attracted rave reviews around the world for his lyricism and intensity of performance.

  • Metamorphoses

    Metamorphoses

    Alfonso Soldano is professor of piano performance at the Giordano Conservatory in Foggia, Italy, following similar posts at Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome and in Trani. He was a favorite student of Ciccolini and is renowned for his virtuosity. He was awarded the International Gold Medal for ‘Best Italian Artist’ in 2013 and has won many other competitions, and is also a busy writer and transcriber. His previous recordings for Divine Art, of the music of Rachmaninoff, Bortkiewicz and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, received glowing reviews. He has performed and given masterclasses all around Italy, and in Germany, Switzerland and Romania, and post-Covid is planning a wider international concert schedule, hoping to tour the USA.

    His Rachmaninoff is especially magical. He has transcribed 15 of the composer’s romantic songs for solo piano in three books of ‘Romances’ which he performs here with works by Debussy which Soldano has also transcribed. The album is a glorious, sumptuous immersion in late Romantic and Impressionist music which will appeal equally to classical experts and the wider general public. It is a collection of sheer beauty.