Divine Art Records

Period: Baroque

  • Ek-stasis: Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs

    Ek-stasis: Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs

    Experience the captivating journey of Ek-stasis, presented by Divine Art Recordings.

    Delve into the world of myths reconstructed in music by celebrated composers from different cultures and times. This unique album features three world premiere recordings, bringing fresh and exciting music to the programme. Greek pianist and professor Zoe Samsarelou has expertly curated a selection of works that weave together an interconnected narrative, taking you on a journey through the myth of Dionysus. From the works of Couperin, Rameau, Dandrieu, and Daquin to the eminent Greek composers of the 20th and 21st centuries and the Late Romantics in between, each piece is thoughtfully selected and presented.

    The album is divided into themes of seduction, pathos, illusion, metamorphosis, transcendence, instinct, catharsis, mythos, paradox, and transition. This creates an immersive experience that guides the listener through the various stages of the myth and offers a musical perspective on the story. Accompanied by Zoe Samsarelou’s insightful prose on the collection and notes on the Greek composers featured in the program, Ek-stasis is more than just a listening
    experience. It’s a celebration of the Greek spirit that has influenced humanity for over 2,500 years, highlighting the creativity and ingenuity of these wonderful composers.

  • J S Bach: Tranquillity

    J S Bach: Tranquillity

    Like all great composers, Bach wrote lively dynamic pieces for keyboard as well as in his cantatas etc. But he also produced many wonderful gentle and peaceful works and many of these are collected by pianist Jonathan Phillips in his new album ‘Tranquillity’. This recording contains music for anyone hoping to gain an overriding sense of stillness, calm, contemplation and reverence. Bach’s music has radiance, luminosity, divinity, serenity, and timeless beauty.

    Jonathan Phillips (“a musician of real quality and finesse” – The Times) has broadcast for the BBC, Russian and Italian and Swedish TV and radio, and has given recitals all over the UK, Europe and former Soviet Union.

  • 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.

  • J S Bach: “Goldberg” Variations, BWV 988 (Burkard Schliessmann)

    J S Bach: “Goldberg” Variations, BWV 988 (Burkard Schliessmann)

    Burkard Schliessmann is a unique interpreter, never afraid to find a new expression and always searching for the heart of the music and the composer’s inspiration, whether in the Romantic world or that of J.S.Bach. Among other awards, Schliessmann won three silver medals at the Global Music Awards 2017 for his Divine Art Chopin album, and has been awarded the Goethe-Plakette by the city of Frankfurt.

    This recording of the Goldberg Variations was originally released in 2007 (Bayer – SACD only, not digital) and was highly acclaimed: “ambitious and really spectacular” (AllMusic); “thoughtfully simple, always finely worked out” (FonoForum); Critics Choice 2008 (American Record Guide); Recording of the Year (MusicWeb International). Newly remastered in 5.0 Dolby Atmos audio, this brilliant recording is now offered as a hybrid 5-channel SACD/CD and in finest digital audio quality.

     

     

    Please note: the digital albums offered here are two-channel HD stereo. To obtain the 5-channel digital album visit a Dolby Atmos supplier (Apple/Amazon)

     

  • J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Solo Cello

    J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Solo Cello

    The Six Suites for Solo Cello by J S Bach composed around 1720, are generally regarded as the first and greatest masterpieces ever written for the instrument.

    Their scope is vast and ingenious. Although most of the time, only one note is played, occasional chords and masterful melodies imply harmony and counterpoint.

    The Suites have been performed and recorded countless times over the last 100 years, with a variety of interpretative approaches. These approaches, until recently, could often be rather academic and formal, as it used to be thought that baroque music was mostly about form. The present cellist takes a radically opposing approach, one which is inspirational and which infuses the works with vitality and spirit.

    Marina Tarasova is a world-renowned cellist with many recordings to her name for Musical Concepts and Northern Flowers among other labels, and this is her first recording for Divine Art. She has won international competitions in Prague, Florence and Paris and has a wide repertoire covering works of composers from the 17th century to the 20th century.

  • 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.

  • Handel: Suites for Harpsichord, volumes 1-3

    Handel: Suites for Harpsichord, volumes 1-3

    This discount bundle includes three 2-CD sets, or in digital form the equivalent of six albums: all at at 25% discount off the price of buying individually.

    Gilbert Rowland is one of England’s most established and experienced harpsichordists and his recordings of Handel, Froberger and Mattheson for Divine Art and Athene have been widely praised and have proved popular with customers in many countries.

    Click on the individual CD page links to see all reviews and full tracklists

    Volume 1 (DDA 21219)
    “The standard of playing is very high indeed, with some crisp articulation, appropriately added ornamentation in the repeats and a subtly convincing application of inégalité … this is a most enjoyable recording.” – John Collins (The Consort)

    Volume 2 (DDA 21220)
    “It is impossible to praise this new release too highly. Fabulous playing.The combination of Handel, Gilbert Rowland, Wooderson’s fine harpsichord, the recording and the recording engineer John Taylor is unbeatable providing, as it does, a collection of these wonderful suites that I will return to again and again.” – Bruce Reader (The Classical Reviewer)

    Volume 3 (DDA 21225)
    “Exquisite performances by veteran musician Gilbert Rowland … splendid playing and outstanding instrument.” – John Pitt (New Classics)

  • Froberger: Complete Fantasias and Canzonas

    Froberger: Complete Fantasias and Canzonas

    Johann Jacob FROBERGER (1616-1667)
    Froberger’s fantasias and canzonas are amongst his most beautifully crafted yet most neglected works. They survive together with toccatas and partitas in a meticulously written autograph manuscript, the Libro Secondo, dated 19 September 1649. This is the first recording of all 14 works on the clavichord. Froberger was a most important figure in the early baroque period, helping to develop the style of the ‘dance suite’ so well known from the later hands of Bach, Handel and so many more.

    The instrument used here is a reconstruction (2009, Andreas Hermet) of a South German clavichord which is in the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. It is an ideal vehicle for the strongly contrapuntal music of Froberger. The clavichord is a small quiet instrument but does have a wide dynamic range and even variable vibrato – an extremely difficult instrument to master.

    Terence Charlston is one of the UK’s foremost exponents of early keyboard music both as a soloist on organ, clavichord and harpsichord, and as a chamber musician, having been a member of both the London Baroque and Florilegium. He has initiated many new editions and recordings of early music and has developed an international reputation as one of the leaders of this area of music.

  • Scarlatti and Clementi: Keyboard Sonatas

    Scarlatti and Clementi: Keyboard Sonatas

    John McCabe (1939-2015) was renowned as both a pianist (a Haydn specialist and supporter of many contemporary composers) and as a composer in his own right of very fine music in several genres.

    This double album was created from two vinyl LPs issued by Hyperion in 1981 and shows McCabe as a first-class interpreter of the baroque and early classical sonata styles, here brought together.

    Domenico Scarlatti, an exact contemporary of Handel and JS Bach though living a few years longer, is probably the most renowned and certainly the most prolific of composers of the (usually single movement) keyboard sonata, more traditionally played on harpsichord. A hundred years later, pre-eminent among others, Clementi developed the classical piano sonata, introducing sustain and other dynamic effects available to the fortepiano, being produced by his family company among others. Both sets of works also translate very well to the modern concert grand.

  • Diana Boyle plays Bach

    Diana Boyle plays Bach

    Diana Boyle is a fine pianist who records little but prepares each recording with years of thought, consideration and meditation on the music. Her interpretations are individual and thought-provoking, often delicate, not always conforming to the norm which pianists of lesser talent will follow, but looking to breathe new life and spirit into classic masterpieces. Her previous Divine Art albums have been very popular and highly praised.

    Like all of Diana Boyle’s work these new recordings are very carefully prepared and well crafted performances which do not fear to display real feeling and depth, not at all like the all too common ‘mechanical’ performances of Baroque music. The works themselves are not all among Bach’s best known, but all display his total mastery of the art of composition.

  • Galuppi Piano Sonatas, volume 4

    Galuppi Piano Sonatas, volume 4

    Peter Seivewright was amongst the first musicians to seriously research (in 1994) the 100 keyboard sonatas by Venetian composer Galuppi, also famed as a pioneer of opera buffa. While others have since come to appreciate and record the fine variety and novelty of these works, for many personal and career reasons, Seivewright’s series was held up after volume 3 was released in 2004 but is now back on track with this intermediate album which includes also the G major Piano Concerto. Many of the sonatas have had to be reconstructed from single movement manuscripts. They show amazing diversity, from single-movement works to two- and three-movement pieces, and from traditional baroque style to a Romanticism prescient of Schumann. Seivewright strongly believes that the works were specifically written for the pianoforte rather than harpsichord due to their frequent need for sostenuto and other factors.

    Peter Seivewright studied at Oxford then at the Royal Northern College of Music. He has performed extensively as recitalist and concerto soloist and has taught in colleges around the world, from Scotland to Trinidad to Afghanistan and most recently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
    Find Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3