Divine Art Records

Product Cat: Recording

  • Visions of the Greek Soul

    Visions of the Greek Soul

    Cilia Petridou was an accomplished pianist until her career was ended by major surgery, since when she has concentrated on composition. Moving with her family to the UK, she was hugely affected by the Turkish invasion of north Cyprus which destroyed their home town of Famagusta; her music is often informed by that political and social tragedy and also by the landscapes of Cyprus, ancient literature and the Greek Orthodox liturgy.

    This double album is in two parts: The Asmata is a collection of songs inspired by modern Greek poetry, divided between two sopranos. A small vocal ensemble then presents the Byzantine Doxology, a new setting of Orthodox liturgical texts. Most is sung in Greek and is suffused, even in the case of a setting of Emily Dickinson, with the musical traditions of that country. The composer has also been much inspired by the ancient writings of Anyte of Tegea.

    More music by Cilia can be found on ‘Sounds of the Chionistra‘ and ‘The Mystery of Christmas‘

  • 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.

  • How Great our Joy! – Organ music for Christmas

    How Great our Joy! – Organ music for Christmas

    A special album of works for Christmas – many of them arrangements and fantasias on well-loved hymns and carols, and some new dedicated compositions. All the music is by Carson Cooman, composer in residence at the Memorial Church, Harvard University, and America’s most prolific composer of works for organ. This music is just as good to listen to at any time of year and is expertly played by Erik Simmons, a superb organist for whom this is the twelfth album of Cooman’s music on the Divine Art label. We hear the wonderful ‘Sun Organ’ of St. Peter & Paul, Görlitz, recorded through the Hauptwerk system.

    Find the other issues in this series and a discount complete set by clicking on the composer name above or in the composer index.

  • Jonathan Östlund : Voyages (CD)

    Jonathan Östlund : Voyages (CD)

    Jonathan Östlund is a Swedish composer who has recently been living in London. He has manifested an avid interest for music from an early age and has pursued his passion with a BA and MA in Composition at the Luleå Tekniska Universitet, in Sweden. He has studied under the artistic guidance of Prof. Rolf Martinsson, Prof. Jan Sandström and Prof. Sverker Jullander, among others, and has so far completed approximately 80 works, including several orchestral pieces and a Piano Concerto, and has been awarded many prizes in international competitions.

    This second double album was issued in digital download only in March 2019 and here is the CD version by popular demand. It is similar to the previous album ‘Lunaris’ in that it features orchestral, vocal, instrumental and chamber music with inspiration from nature, in an even wider variety than on the previous release. A team of top European soloists (several of whom also gave the world premieres of these works) were gathered to record this album. Östlund’s music is very accessible and tonal and often full of wit and humor, and always atmospheric.

    To access the DIGITAL DOWNLOAD version which includes two extra tracks click HERE

  • Transformations – music for organ

    Transformations – music for organ

    Three major organ works: one from Liszt, one of the masters of high Romanticism and bubbling virtuosity; the powerful Heroic Sonata of Jongen and the first commercial recording of the delicately figured piece ‘The Dancing Pipes’ by Jonathan Dove, one of today’s most appreciated composers. This superb program is titled ‘Transformations’ as each piece contains musical transformations of themes; it also reflects the transformation of the fine Harrison & Harrison organ at Cheltenham College Chapel – this is its first recording since a full restoration in 2017.

    Alexander Ffinch studied at the Royal College of Music and was organ scholar at Keble College Oxford. He gave over 100 recitals as resident organist at Lancaster Town Hall and continues to undertake a busy concert and broadcasting schedule (sadly his planned August 2019 debut at Notre Dame Paris is ‘on hold’). Alexander was appointed College Organist at Cheltenham in 2004 since when he has played daily in the Chapel as well as giving regular recitals; he oversaw the 2017 restoration and manages the work of both students and visiting recitalists.

  • Portals – Carson Cooman Organ Music vol. 11

    Portals – Carson Cooman Organ Music vol. 11

    Carson Cooman is many things musical – organist and Composer in Residence at the Memorial Church, Harvard University; writer, critic and consultant, concert organist, and above all a highly prolific composer of music in a wide variety of genres, from orchestral to song.

    His organ compositions come in many styles, from liturgical models, to more gritty and substantial pieces such as his organ symphonies, preludes and fugues. This album contains several fine works including the Third Organ Symphony.

    Erik Simmons is a superb organist, making his eleventh Cooman organ album for Divine Art. He is playing the wonderful ‘Sun Organ’ of St. Peter & Paul, Görlitz, recorded through the Hauptwerk system.

    This is volume 11 of this highly praised series. Volume 12 is a Christmas music album; volume 13 due June 2020.

    Find the other volumes and a discount complete set by clicking composer name above or in the composer index.

  • Found in Winter – Music by Helen Habershon

    Found in Winter – Music by Helen Habershon

    Helen Habershon’s writing is instinctive and inspired. She is passionate about ‘our incredible natural world’ and it is the main source for her music. ‘Found in Winter’ expresses the many different faces of winter with its varied moods, and the ever-present threat of climatic change both cyclic and man-made.
    The music has been wonderfully arranged for small orchestra (most tracks) by John Lenehan and is unashamedly tuneful, though never simplistic; impressionistic and almost visual in its impact. This album follows two previous CDs which were Album of the Month and Album of the Week respectively on Classic FM.

    Helen is principally a clarinettist with a distinguished international concert, radio and TV career; after a serious injury to both wrists, she turned to composition and has never looked back, though now once again able to perform – as she does on this album.

    The performers on the album have all established themselves as leading lights; John Anderson is one of the most recorded oboists in the world and professor of oboe at the Royal College of Music; Andrew Fuller left the RPO to follow a very successful career in solo and chamber performances, and John Lenehan has appeared on over 70 albums including solo recordings for Sony, receiving many plaudits. The London Primavera was formed in 1986 and consists of the foremost chamber musicians in Britain. It has appeared at many international festivals, has made two TV series, and several recordings. Anthony Halstead has made over 50 CDs all around the world with leading ensembles and is one of Britain’s most sought-after and versatile conductors

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Galina Ustvolskaya – Complete works for Violin and Piano

    Galina Ustvolskaya – Complete works for Violin and Piano

    Unfairly named ‘The Lady with the Hammer’ for her uncompromising use of massive thunderous chords and ostinato rhythms, Ustvolskaya was a pupil of Shostakovich but forged her own unique way into many genres. Recently, artists have concentrated, as here, on bringing out the richness of the works and their innate lyricism. This album includes all of the composer’s music for violin and piano in two major works – the Sonata and the Duet.

    Russian violinist Evgeny Sorkin was a child prodigy and performed for Isaac Stern at the age of 10 and was compared at 16 to David Oistrakh by no less than Yehudi Menuhin. He moved to Australia and balanced teaching at Sydney Conservatory with a busy recital schedule.

    Natalia Andreeva is a Russian pianist who is currently Lecturer in Piano at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her 2015 recording of the complete solo piano music of Galina Ustvolskaya was very well received; she is a pianist of consummate skill who can express the power and lyricism which exist side by side in these works

  • 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.

  • Mdina – Music for Horn

    Mdina – Music for Horn

    Following the release of his debut album in May 2007 the virtuoso horn player Etienne Cutajar, who took up his first orchestral seat at 18, has seen his career develop with important orchestral appointments in Scotland and elsewhere before returning to his native country to become principal horn of the Malta Philharmonic. He has also appeared as chamber soloist in many prestigious venues.

    This album is named for the central work, Mdina, by Maltese composer Jesmond Grixti; this is a work for horn solo and accompanied by two more contemporary pieces: Air für Horn by Jörg Widmann and Cynddaredd-Brenddyd by Heinz Holliger. These works require the highest accuracy and technical ability which Cutajar supplies with aplomb.

    Accompanying these new pieces are three mainstream works: Beethoven’s well known Sonata receives a superb performance, as do the Andante by Richard Strauss and Brahms’s Horn Trio in E flat.

    In these works, Cutajar is joined by esteemed pianist and Royal Academy professor John Reid, and in the Brahms Trio by Carmine Lauri, one of the UK’s principal orchestral violinists, who has led the London Symphony, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and Royal Opera House among others, and has been featured violinist in a host of major feature films.

    “Cutajar impresses with his breath control, rock-solid evenness of tone, and amazing pppppppps. One has to admire Cutajar for his facility and technical prowess.” – Robert Markow (Fanfare)