Divine Art Records

Period: Romantic

  • Chopin – Piano Works (audiophile 2-LP set)

    Chopin – Piano Works (audiophile 2-LP set)

    Divine Art’s first vinyl release is a selection of tracks from the Burkard Schliessmann triple SACD ‘Chronological Chopin’ which won a silver medal at the Global Music Awards 2017 as well as glowing reviews from music critics the world over.

    An audiophile two-disc set recorded and mastered at 24-bit quality, this is a very rare opportunity to obtain new recordings of Chopin’s masterpieces in the best sound and by a compelling interpreter.

    German pianist Burkard Schliessmann is a performer with a passion and vision – to seek out and interpret the forms, colours and textures, indeed the soul and expression: the poetic impact, of works we believe have already been fully explored. His previous recordings have received worldwide acclaim – “Schliessmann is too good a pianist for anyone to pass on this” – American Record Guide; “without equal” – Fanfare. Chopin is above all his composer of choice to whom he has devoted endless hours of study and appreciation.

    Pressed in 180-gram blue vinyl by Pallas of Berlin in luxury gatefold sleeve – pressing will be limited to make this a true collector’s edition.

  • France Revisited

    France Revisited

    Piano-a-Deux – Husband and wife team Robert and Linda Stoodley are an adventurous duo with a very wide range of repertoire from the pops to major classical works which they present to appreciative audiences all around the world, spending much time as recitalists on cruise ships.

    This new album features a programme of French music, including Debussy’s well known Petite Suite and the superb First Sonata for Piano Duet by George Onslow, contemporary of the young Mozart and on this showing an equal in compositional skill. Add to that Poulenc’s ‘Songs of Love and War’ arranged by Linda into a new suite of pieces, and we have a very entertaining and instructive album beautifully played.

  • The Operatic Pianist: Volume II

    The Operatic Pianist: Volume II

    In the mid to late 19th century, piano transcriptions allowed access to the classics for the majority of people who could not attend opera or orchestral performances. In the area of ‘grand opera’ specialists included of course Franz Liszt – and also composers such as Sigismund Thalberg. Andrew Wright is a rarity in the current day being an expert interpreter and also arranger of operatic themes, and as well as an astonishing virtuosity enabling the drama of the scene to be preserved, he also keeps alive the tradition by which opera tunes became popular.

    Following the critical praise given to the original ‘Operatic Pianist’ album, this set includes transcriptions and fantasies by Wright, Thalberg, Liszt, Kullak, Leschetizky and Jaëll and amazingly a fine work by Saint-Saëns receiving its world premiere recording.

    Intense, dramatic and full of action this will appeal to both opera lovers and piano afficionados.

  • 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.

  • Diana Boyle – Brahms Piano Works

    Diana Boyle – Brahms Piano Works

    This album focuses on Intermezzi and Capriccios from Brahms’s very late period – Op. 76 and Op. 116-119. All of these pieces are true ‘Songs without Words’ though not titled as such, and are reserved, rather intimate works, never ‘flashy’ or virtuosic for the sake of virtuosity. They carry a strong sense of mood or inner feeling that mere titles could not convey.

    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.

    Like all of Boyle’s work this is a very carefully prepared and well crafted performance, an excellent addition to the library of recordings of this work.

    The second of our new digital-only ‘Intangible Classics’ series and of the Diana Boyle edition; these works by Brahms remain much less familiar to many than his Songs without Words and Hungarian Dances, but are pinnacles of the Romantic piano repertoire. Though recorded in 1994, this recording is as fresh as today and was previously on Integra Records (CD).

  • Natalia Andreeva plays Preludes & Fugues

    Natalia Andreeva plays Preludes & Fugues

    After the highly praised recording of music by Ustvolskaya (DDA 25130), Natalia Andreeva presents a brief survey of the Prelude and Fugue – one of the most prevalent of keyboard forms over the centuries. From Bach to Shostakovich, this concert-format album is a useful introduction to the genre, and also a fine interpretation for the experts to enjoy. Two of Rachmaninoff’s Etude-tableaux are included as ‘bonus encores’.

    Companion album: ‘Piano Sonatas’ from Beethoven, Scriabin and Prokofiev (DDA 25140). Plus: Ustvolskaya’s Violin and Piano music on DDA 25182

    Natalia Andreeva is a Russian pianist who is currently Lecturer in Piano at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her 2015 recording of the music of Galina Ustvolskaya was very well received, and like that album, this new recording of better-known classical and Romantic works is the result of many years of study, developing her own mental picture of these masterpieces and of what the composers were trying to communicate.

    There are various links between the works – in fact Liszt, Franck and Shostakovich were all influenced by Bach generally, as well as composing in the Prelude and Fugue form that he made a staple of the keyboard repertoire.

  • Russian Piano Music, Vols. 1-15

    Russian Piano Music, Vols. 1-15

    25% PERCENT OFF USUAL PRICE

    A major series mixing familiar and less-known music, from the Russian Romantic school, from Rachmaninov to Ustvolskaya by way of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rebikov, Gliere, Lyapunov, Arensky, Weinberg, Mussorgsky and more.

    Each CD has been critically acclaimed. Featuring pianists Natalia Andreeva, Anthony Goldstone, Murray McLachlan, Alfonso Soldano, Stefania Argentieri and Sergei Dukachev.

    Explore the series :

    Digital downloads include all booklets in PDF format.
    This set consists of 14 single albums and one double.

  • Russian Piano Music Volume 12 – Sergei Bortkiewicz

    Russian Piano Music Volume 12 – Sergei Bortkiewicz

    It is quite puzzling why, until very recently, the music of Bortkiewicz has not been widely known and loved: his high Romantic style makes him a natural to the legacy of Tchaikovsky, and he was a close contemporary of Rachmaninov. Born of Polish parentage, and later an Austrian citizen, Bortkiewicz lived in many parts of Europe but always considered himself truly Russian. This recording gives a wide sample of his work and will surely whet the appetite for more. Performed by Alfonso Soldano in his CD debut for Divine Art, a professor at the Conservatorio G. Braga in Teramo, Italy; he is also the biographer of the composer, a role which has given him unique insight into the mind and spirit of Bortkiewicz.

  • Burkard Schliessmann – Chronological Chopin

    Burkard Schliessmann – Chronological Chopin

    For this album, Schliessmann received a Silver Medal in the 2017 Global Music Awards

    A potential (definite!) Collector’s item for the future, is this wonderful recital by leading German pianist Burkard Schliessmann, who presents Chopin’s musical development through a chronological programme including the 24 Preludes, Op. 28, the complete Scherzi and Ballades and other works, in stunning high-definition audio. This triple SACD set is in 5-channel audio, but is fully compatible with all normal CD players. In two channel sound in digital download.

    Schliessmann is the perfect interpreter of Chopin, bringing out the inner character of the pieces. A landmark recording.

     

  • Roman Statkowski: Piano Music

    Roman Statkowski: Piano Music

    One of the most brilliant successors to the Romantic genres popularised by Chopin, yet hardly known outside Poland, Statkowski’s music is full of sparkling energy, rhythmic vitality and a mass of wonderful melodies. For anyone who loves the classical romanticism of the mid to late 19th century, Statkowski is a composer to be checked out and investigated in depth.

    The virtuoso Polish pianist Barbara Karaskiewicz has championed Statkowski’s music for some time, and has a close affinity with the music. With formidable technique in the glittering fast passages she is the ideal interpreter.

  • Cantilena II – flute and piano

    Cantilena II – flute and piano

    The flute and piano duo Cantilena, made up of flautist Odinn Baldvinsson and pianist Patricia Romero, are based in the UK and are establishing a fine reputation since the release of their debut CD (also eponymous), for a wide range of repertoire, mainly Romantic, both popular and less well known. So on this superb album, we have the beautiful Concertino of Chaminade, and Dutilleux’s Sonatine, both quite well known; the Suite by Widor is a little known piece by a composer more famed for his organ music and is very much in the French Romantic mould: also exquisite is the rare Sonata by Georgian composer Taktakishvili; finally Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango – a very well known piece but amazingly this is its first ever recording in the version for flute and piano.

  • From the British Isles – music for flute and piano

    From the British Isles – music for flute and piano

    The third in a series of albums by this leading flute and piano duo (and their seventh recording for Divine Art) in which we welcome back some iconic recordings previously issued by ASV (and long unavailable) together with some new recordings; this 2 CD set at mid price has several major works by British and Irish composers, from the early 18th to the late 20th century. As ever the duo demonstrate both remarkable virtuosity and also super musicality and depth in these mainly ‘Romantic’ works. The set is provided in luxury packaging at no extra cost, with detailed notes on the music. From the funfilled quirky and jazz-inflected Sonata by Malcolm Arnold through more ‘serious’ pieces by Leighton and Mathias, back to the late baroque sonata of John Ranish, this program is a perfect compilation of lyrical music for flute and piano.