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Author Archive for Divine Art Recordings Group – Page 10

Roderick Chadwick Presents a New Recording of Piano Music by Messiaen, Szymanowski, and David Gorton

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

28 April, 2020

Divine Art Recordings is delighted to announce a new album of piano music from English pianist Roderick Chadwick. Alongside the first book from Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux are works by Karol Szymanowski and David Gorton.

Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux for solo piano evokes the sights and sounds of the French landscape, exploring time and memory across its two and a half-hour span. The diversity of Messiaen’s imagination can be heard in the progression from the sharp, solitary cries of the alpine chough to the fanfares of the golden oriole and harmonious, sapphire-blue sea along the Roussillon coast, where the headlands (in the composer’s words) ‘stretch into the sea like crocodiles’.

Each of the cycle’s seven livres suggests a variety of contexts, and on this new recording the first book is presented as an echo of the programming of the Parisian Domaine Musical, where it was first heard: old music, modern classic, and contemporary. The theme is Mediterraneanisation, journeys to and from water: the elusive moods of David Gorton’s Ondine point from the Messiaen towards the more human drama of Szymanowski’s Third Sonata, a pinnacle of the heady series of works that followed transformational trips to Italy and North Africa.

Roderick Chadwick can also be heard on the Métier and Divine Art labels in music by Michael Finnissy, Mihailo Trandafilovski, David Gorton, Mozart and Ole Bull, in partnership with Peter Sheppard Skaerved and the Kreutzer Quartet. He is the co-author, with Peter Hill, of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux: from Conception to Performance (CUP).

Divine Art DDA 25209

Works:

Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux, Book 1 (Le Chocard des Alpes ; Le Loriot ; Le Merle bleu)
David Gorton: Ondine
Karol Szymanowski: Piano Sonata No. 3

Details

Recorded 17 and 18 December 2019 in Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London.
Prospective release date: October 2020 (exact date to be confirmed)

Roderick Chadwick Recordings

News

Tags : David Gorton, Messiaen, Roderick Chadwick

Music for Clarinet and Strings from Gemini

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

3 April, 2020

Divine Art is delighted to announce its latest project for the Métier label with leading chamber ensemble Gemini and its clarinettist leader, Ian Mitchell. The album, to be recorded this autumn, will be titled “for clarinet and strings” and contains works by several prominent composers, with a number of premiere recordings.

From its very beginning in 1974 Gemini has commissioned composers in a variety of styles, and programmed works and composers that have been overlooked sometimes for many years.

This album presents works by Cyril Scott and Rebecca Clarke that have been championed by the ensemble. The Scott quintet was premiered by the Melos Ensemble in 1953 and possibly given only its second performance (his widow thought this was the case) – at London’s South Bank Centre in 1995. The Clarke duo, like much of her music, was unfamiliar to most people, and (performing from manuscript copies) Gemini has given a number of airings including a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast. A central plank of Gemini’s programming has always been to promote contemporary composers including music by women – 32 of whom have been commissioned, with over 70 performances of works by women. The ensemble has developed long-standing relationships with many composers: commissioning, performing and recording with the aim of giving their music a wider audience. Gemini has had a long and close musical relationship with Nicola LeFanu (eventually inviting her to be the ensemble’s Honorary President); supported Sadie Harrison from very early in her career and commissioned a number of works from Howard Skempton.

The work by Sadie Harrison will have been written in 2020 and is due to be premiered this year subject to the position with regard to social restrictions. The Coe quintet grew out of a commission for a clarinet and piano piece by Ian Mitchell, Gemini’s director, and the Skempton Lullaby was also written for him.

The recording is booked to be held on 6^th October 2020 at St Michael’s Church, South Grove, Highgate, London N6 6BJ. Again this is subject to possible alteration given current circumstances. The Clarke and Scott works were recorded several years ago when Gemini was a winner in the Prudential Award for the Arts .

The new album marks the continuation of an established and successful relationship between Gemini, Mitchell and Métier Records. Given current difficulties in the world at large release is likely to be in the very early part of 2021.

“… for clarinet and strings …” (MSV 28608)

Works

Prelude, Allegro & Pastorale for clarinet and viola (Rebecca Clarke)
Fire in Song (Sadie Harrison)
Songs without Words (Nicola LeFanu)
Dream Sequence (Tony Coe)
Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet (Cyril Scott)
Lullaby (Howard Skempton)

Gemini:

Ian Mitchell (Clarinet)
Caroline Balding (violin & viola)
Ruth Ehrlich (violin)
Yuko Inoue (viola)
Sophie Harris (cello)
Aleksander Szram (clapsticks, speaker)

Previously on Métier:

Coming Soon

Tags : Cyril Scott, Gemini, Ian Mitchell, Metier, Rebecca Clarke

Announcing Edward Cowie Orchestral Works from Métier Records

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

25 March, 2020

Divine Art Recordings are to release an album of orchestral music by Edward Cowie, which as with their recent and highly praised disc by John McCabe will be a remastered re-release of classic Hyperion vinyl LPs. The two works on this album have a coincidental close relationship with each other. The connection between them is WATER and its ceaseless and constantly changing character and ‘mood’. The intended release date will be this autumn.

The SECOND CLARINET CONCERTO is inspired by a man and his changing and often tempestuous relationship with a great deep lake, Coniston in The Lake District of England. John Ruskin, a famous and brilliant Victorian Arts Scholar, was prone to severe bouts of depression including hallucinations. He bought a large house overlooking and close to Coniston, thinking and hoping it would ‘heal’ his suffering. On good clear days, he felt euphoric, peaceful and uplifted, but when mists, wind, rain and black/grey storms raged, he was hurled into a tempest of fear, Illusions and delusions of overwhelming horror. Ruskin (the solo clarinet) is pitted against and within the forces of nature: fluxes between limpid calm and tortuous turmoil. Only the emergence of a glorious Lakeland sunset at the end of the piece rescues the great man from the black hell of madness.

The CONCERTO for ORCHESTRA (“Studies in the Movement of Water”), is named after the many and astounding drawings of water made by Leonardo da Vinci. Composer Edward Cowie made a celebrated BBC 2 TV film about Leonardo in which this massive work features. Da Vinci’s drawings abound in turbulence, complex wave-forms, pulsations, folding sand, weaving of water between extremes of mirror-calm and maximum fracture and fragmentation. Also inspired by often storm-bound sailing amongst Scotland’s western Isles, this is a tour de force of unchained orchestral energy- unremitting- unforgiving and unfathomable. It is as visual as it is sonic- bursting with acoustic spray, waves and winds……

EDWARD COWIE has been described as ‘the greatest living composer directly inspired by the Natural World’ – high praise indeed. His first BBC Proms commission was in 1975 for the massive orchestral work Leviathan. Since then he has produced a stream of works inspired by wild (and some not so wild) places on our planet; however his undergraduate studies on physics (and a continuing fascination with particle physics) and studies in painting have also strongly shaped his musical voice. Today he is a skilled composer, conductor, pianist, and visual artist. Following the imminent release of a recording of three of his string quartets in April (Métier MSV 28603) he is delighted to form a lasting partnership with Divine Art and its new-music imprint Métier and future projects already in hand include a disc of choral works (BBC Singers) and a programme of solo guitar music.

As this new recording is taken from a vinyl LP and no additional works are suitable as ‘fillers’ the 44-minute album will be issued at low-mid price. The great clarinettist Alan Hacker is soloist in the Clarinet Concerto, both works with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, for whom Edward Cowie was the first Granada Composer/Conductor appointee (1982-84). The conductor on this album is Howard Williams.

Edward Cowie: Orchestral Works

Concerto for Orchestra
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Howard Williams
Clarinet Concerto No. 2
Alan Hacker (clarinet)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Howard Williams

Métier MSV 92108 (Originally released as Hyperion A 66120 issued in 1984)

Original LP Reviews:

‘Scintillating! Powered by a relentless elemental force- what a triumph!’ – The Times (William Mann)
‘An absolute tour de force of orchestral colour and energy! The work pulsates with the ocean’s mood changes. Cowie is a true sonic poet of Nature’ – The Observer (David Cairns)
‘This is a ravishing and deeply moving testament to the forces of nature and the human mind’ – The Guardian (Gerald Larner)
‘This is Cowie in richly lyrical mood- music saturated with emotional ordeals and the ever-changing light and colour of Coniston. Loved it!’ – The Financial Times (Max Loppart)

News

Tags : Edward Cowie

Remembering Jazz Legend Bill Smith

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

6 March, 2020

William Overton (‘Bill’ to everyone) Smith was not only a clarinettist of distinction in both jazz and ‘straight’ fields, but also a composer of remarkably innovative music, much of it for his own instrument. He single-handedly expanded the capabilities of the clarinet beyond the wildest dreams of other musicians. From the beginning of the 1960s he regularly discovered and explored many new ways of playing the instrument: multiphonics (producing more than one sound at once; playing two clarinets at once – inspired by the ancient Greek double wind pipe the aulos; using a cork mute, and much more. He also composed the first clarinet and tape piece and a 12-tone jazz concerto. Born in California in 1926 he could claim (if modesty allowed) more than most to be dubbed a truly versatile musician. He studied clarinet at Juilliard and the Paris Conservatoire. As Bill Smith the jazz player he was the co-founder, with fellow Darius Milhaud student at Mills College, of the Dave Brubeck Octet in 1946-47, continuing to work frequently with Brubeck. He also studied composition with Roger Sessions at Berkeley, going on to write well over 200 works.

Bill was inquisitive and searching, inventing ways of playing purely for his own interest. I remember sitting on the bed in his hotel room once being shown how he had recently found that one could play the clarinet without a mouthpiece – flute-like, as side-blown instrument. He also explored the use of computers and electronics. He was modest, entertaining, and with an engaging high pitch laugh, carrying a root of ginger in his pocket, from which he’d occasionally slice a piece off to chew to help keep him healthy. He was a special musician and a special person, continuing to play literally throughout his life, playing at a 93^rd birthday concert in September 2019. Many will not realise his enormous legacy as one of the most creative musicians of the second half of the twentieth century, as they begin to explore the world of ‘advanced’ techniques for the clarinet. RIP Bill.

—Ian Mitchell, 6 March 2020

Bill Smith’s Discography on Métier

Stephen's Desk

Tags : Bill Smith, Ian Mitchell, William Overton Smith

Zeynep Ucbasaran, Miguel Ortega Chavaldas, Sergio Gallo

Two New Piano Projects for 3 Pianos & Four Hands

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

2 March, 2020

New Recordings from Zeynep Ucbasaran, Miguel Ortega Chavaldas, and Sergio Gallo

Divine Art has announced two linked but very different new albums of piano music. The first comprises recordings of recent works for three pianos by an international group of composers from the USA, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Turkey. Though modernist, the works are also accessible and generally tonal with a rich and deep textured sound from the combined voices of the three grand pianos. The program includes the award –winning “Inni” (Hymn) by Luigi Dallapiccola together with works by Ince and Saygun, and pieces by other composers which have been commissioned by the trio and which are thus receiving their first recordings. The performers are Zeynep Ucbasaran, Miguel Ortega Chavaldas and Sergio Gallo, together ‘The 3-Piano Project’. Ucbasaran, based in California, is the ‘leader among equals’ in the group. She has made several highly-praised recordings previously for Naxos and Eroica.

As a counterpoint to this pioneering program, Ucbasaran and Gallo have recorded a second album – this time for four hands at one piano – of popular and well-loved works in splendid dynamic performances. The major work is Milhaud’s homage to Brazilian music with touches of jazz, ‘Le boeuf sur le toit’ and operatic themes and folk-inspired dances. Both recordings were completed at the Music Academy of the West, in Santa Barbara, California, in the latter half of 2019 and are scheduled for release in the summer of 2020.

Divine Art DDA 25207 ‘The Three-Piano Project’

Artists: Zeynep Ucbasaran, Miguel Ortega Chavaldas and Sergio Gallo (pianos)

Works:

Idea Cells (Server Acim) *
S’io esca vivo (If I escape alive) (Edson Zampronha) *
Poem, Op. 73 (Adnan Saygun) *
Petit Nocturne Noire (José Zárate) *
Requiem for Mehmet (Kamran Ince) *
Inni (Luigi Dallapiccola)
(*world premiere recordings)

Divine Art DDA 25208 Music for Four Hands at One piano (album title not yet determined)

Artists: Zeynep Ucbasaran and Sergio Gallo (piano duet)

Works:

Two episodes from Lenau’s Faust, S.599 (Franz Liszt)
Slavonic Dances from Op. 48 – Nos. 1,2 & 8 (Antonín Dvořák)
Love Song from Faust (Charles Gounod; arr. H. Englemann)
Jocelyn – Berceuse (Benjamin Godard)Carmen – Overture (Georges Bizet)
Faust – Waltz (Charles Gounod; arr, W.P. Mero)
Le bœuf sur le toit (Darius Milhaud)

SHORT BIOGRAPHIES

Zeynep Ucbasaran made her Wigmore Hall debut in November 2004. She has recorded many albums, including music of Liszt, Schubert, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Bernstein and Muczynsjki. Most recently she recorded the piano music of Saygun (Naxos) and the complete piano sonatas of Mozart (Eroica Classical).

Dr. Sergio Gallo has won the piano concerto competitions of both the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Brazil) and the University Symphony, Santa Barbara (USA). He has performed with orchestras throughout the Americas and in Turkey, as well as broadcasting on Radio France and Radio Cultura. He now lives in the USA where he teaches at Georgia State University in Atlanta and Rocky Ridge Music Academy in Estes Park, Colorado.

Miguel A. Ortega Chavaldas was born in Las Palmas on the Canary Islands and studied in Spain under Almudena Cano. He was awarded a first-class diploma in Piano and the highest prize in Chamber Music. Mr Ortega Chavaldas is currently Professor of Piano at the Conservatorio Superior de Aragón in Zaragoza, Spain, and also a collaborating pianist at Reina Sofia Academy in Madrid.

Coming Soon News

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Julian Perkins

Recording of Schubert’s Violin Sonatas on Period Instruments To Be Released on Athene

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

28 February, 2020

Peter Sheppard Skærved backstage with the violin — Peter Sheppard Skærved (Photo Richard Bram)

Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin), and Julian Perkins (square piano) have recorded Schubert’s three 1816 Sonatas for Violin and Piano on period instruments: No. 1 in D major, D.384, No. 2 in A minor, D. 385 and No. 3 in G minor, D.408.

While Franz Schubert is one of the most popular and well–loved of the ‘Great Composers’ not all of his works are quite as well known and this is perhaps true of the threeeSonatas for Violin and Piano, composed at the age of 19. While certainly not rare, they are far less often heard than the Symphonies and Lieder. Titled “Sonata” in the manuscript, the three works were published posthumously as “Sonatinas, Op. 137” and given their relatively intimate nature, and lyrical rather than virtuosic style, the name ‘Sonatina’ has been used often; the performers here insist that Schubert’s original title should be used.

The new recording features two of the country’s foremost performers: Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin) and Julian Perkins (square piano). Both have accomplished enormous success as soloists and chamber musicians. Skærved has already made many recordings as soloist for Athene and its sister ‘new-music’ label Métier (both divisions of Divine Art Recordings). Importantly this is believed to be the first recording of the Sonatinas using a period piano and violin thus reproducing much more accurately the works as originally envisioned and heard.

The new album is likely to be released in the summer.

ATHENE ATH 23208

Schubert: Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin)
Julian Perkins (square piano)
Recorded in London in the summer /autumn of 2019

Works

THREE SONATAS, Op. 137:
No. 1 in D major, D. 384
No. 2 in A minor, D,385
No. 3 in G minor, D.408

Coming Soon

Tags : Athene, Julian Perkins, Period Instruments, Peter Sheppard Skærved, Schubert

New Woodwind Albums from Geoffrey Allen Coming in 2020

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

28 February, 2020

Divine Art’s new-music division, Métier Records, will be releasing two albums of music by veteran Australian composer Geoffrey Allen this year. The first is an album of music for woodwind, which was recorded this January and will be released in the late summer. The music is for flute, clarinet and bassoon, all with piano. Of particular note are the three works for solo bassoon and piano, a brief Pastorale, a Sonatina, and a full-blown Sonata.

The artists are all local Perth musicians: Allan Meyer and Michael Waye from the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, Katherine Walpole who teaches bassoon at both the University of WA and the WA Academy of Performing Arts, and David Wickham, one of Australia’s leading accompanists.

In preparation for recording later this year is a set of music for flute (details to follow in the summer).

Born in 1927 and still incredibly active, Geoffrey Allen is something of a legend in his own country especially in the Perth area but has yet to establish a substantial international reputation. As well as being a fine composer, Allen also established and managed the Keys Press music publishing business until his retirement only recently. His music first appeared on a Divine Art album in 2001 with the Fourth Piano Sonata and Three Piano Pieces were performed by Trevor Barnard (‘Blue Wrens – piano music from Australia, Divine Art DDA 25017).

These new recordings are in addition to the 4-disc set containing Allen’s Piano Sonatas, performed by Murray McLachlan, which is being recorded this spring (details were announced some time ago).

Geoffrey Allen: Music for Woodwinds (MSV 28607)

Works

Pastorale, for bassoon and piano
Outback Sketches, for clarinet and piano
Sonata for Bassoon and Piano
Trio for Flute, Clarinet and Piano
Sonatina for Bassoon and Piano

Artists

Katherine Walpole (bassoon)
Allan Meyer (clarinet)
Michael Waye (flute)
David Wickham (piano)

Recorded in January 2020 in Perth, Western Australia

Coming Soon

Tags : Geoffrey Allen

Debut Recording By The Huberman Piano Trio

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

27 February, 2020

Album of Polish Chamber Music: Works by Szymanowski, Panufnik, and Bacewicz

Divine Art is delighted to announce the first recording by the immensely talented Huberman Piano Trio, based in Częstochowa, Poland. The program comprises three major works, though only one is a trio and the others are pieces for violin and piano. Recorded in January 2020 at the Huberman Philharmony in Częstochowa, the album will include works by Szymanowski, Panufnik and Bacewicz.

Karol Szymanowski is universally considered one of Poland’s greatest composers, while Grażyna Bacewicz has not yet received the full international recognition that her music deserves. Andrzej Panufnik is very well known especially in the UK having become a naturalised British citizen, but he is also held in very high esteem in the country of his birth.

The Huberman Piano Trio was established in 2013 and the violinist and pianist began performing as a duo in 2018. The three members are Barbara Karaśkiewicz (piano), Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka (violin) and Sergei Rysanov (cello). They all obtained their musical education in leading centres including Moscow, Warsaw, Katowice and Poznan. They have performed throughout Europe and also in China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Ukraine and Uruguay, also featuring twice in the Huberman Violin Festival.

The ensemble is named after Bronislaw Huberman, the legendary Polish violinist. He is remembered for his political work and efforts to help tolerance and understanding between peoples and nations. He was the founder of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The violinist of the ensemble, Magdalena Ziarkowska-Kołacka, plays the violin which was owned by Huberman since 1934.

The recording has been supported generously by the Huberman Foundation and Częstochowa Philharmonic and is scheduled for release in October 2020.

DDA 25206 Works

Karol Szymanowski: Sonata in D minor for Violin and Piano
Andrzej Panufnik: Piano Trio, Op. 1
Grażina Bacewicz: Sonata no. 4 for Violin and Piano

Coming Soon

Tags : Humberman Piano Trio

Moon Marked – New album from Chris Gekker Coming May 2020

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

12 February, 2020

Acclaimed American trumpet player Chris Gekker has just made his second album for Métier, the new-music division of Divine Art Recordings. This collection of new and recent works (all but one are world premiere recordings) by a range of American composers including Richard Auldon Clark, Carson Cooman and Lance Hulme, demonstrates the mellow and lyrical aspect of the trumpet. Chris Gekker uses descriptions such as “warmly expressive” and “hauntingly beautiful”. However even though the album is largely ‘laid-back’ it’s never lacking in depth, meaning and ‘soul’.

Adding to the richness of the sound world Chris Gekker is joined by pianist Rita Sloan (who also featured strongly in the previous Gekker album) , violist Katherine Murdock and oboist Mark Hill, and several members of the musically talented Gekker family: Suzanne (clarinet), Jason (double bass) and Lianna (piano).

The works here are wonderfully sonorous, harmonically conservative and will appeal to classical music lovers and also fans of soft lounge jazz.

The album is titled ‘Moon Marked’ and will be released in May 2020 on Métier (MSV 28605).

Moon Marked

Recorded at Dekelboum Concert Hall, University of Maryland on various dates in late 2019 except:

Variations and Fugue on a theme by Brahms (same venue, recorded 2011)
Moon Marked, recorded at Spencerville Seventh Day Adventist Church 2019

Works

… and justice for all? (Richard Auldon Clark) for trumpet, viola and double bass
Elegy for a Sultry Summer Afternoon (Lance Hulme) for trumpet and piano
Moon Marked (Carson Cooman) for trumpet and clarinet
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Brahms (Eric Ewazen) for flugelhorn and piano
Divertimento (Richard Auldon Clark) for trumpet, oboe and viola
Acquainted with the Night (Alistair Coleman) for trumpet and piano
Peace on Earth (Franklin Kiermyer) for trumpet, clarinet, double bass and piano

Performers

Chris Gekker (trumpet and flugelhorn)
Katherine Murdock (viola)
Mark Hill (oboe)
Suzanne Gekker (clarinet)
Jason Gekker (double bass)
Lianna Gekker (piano)
Rita Sloan (piano)

Previously on Divine Art: Ghost Dialogues (MSV 28572)

Chris Gekker is a master of his instrument. His technique is impeccable: The Metier recording is so clear one can hear every detail of attack. In addition, there is a real musical intelligence at work, here coupled with a fervent belief in the music he plays. This is a most varied recital, then, caught in superb sound. The combination of technique, taste, and musicianship is remarkable.”
—Colin Clarke, Fanfare

Coming Soon

Tags : Chris Gekker, Coming Soon, Moon Marked

Time, Space & Change Album Launch

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

5 February, 2020

Saturday, 7 March, 2020 at 7.30pm at All Saints Center, Lewes will be a special screening of Emmy award-winning film-maker Cesca Eaton’s beautiful portrait of the Cuckmere river and Cuckmere Haven through the seasons, with a lush, evocative score by Lewes-based composer Ed Hughes, to mark the release of Ed Hughes’s CD “Time, Space and Change” on Métier.

‘Cuckmere: A Portrait’ was originally commissioned by the Brighton Festival and premiered by the Orchestra of Sound and Light playing live at the Attenborough Centre at the University of Sussex, where Ed Hughes is Professor of Composition in Music, as part of the 2018 Brighton Festival.

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The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Ed Hughes, Cesca Eaton, Tony Whitbread (President, Sussex Wildlife Trust) and Trevor Beattie (Chief Executive, South Downs National Park Authority) chaired by local writer and musician Eleanor Knight.

Details

Saturday 7 March 2020 at 7.30pm
All Saints Centre, Friars Walk, Lewes BN7 2LE
Tickets £10 (under 16s free) or at the door. Entry includes CD.

Tickets

News

Tags : Album Launch, Cesca Eaton, Cuckmere, Ed Hughes, Time Space Change

New Album of Carson Cooman Organ Music from Philip Hartmann

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

22 January, 2020

Organist Philip Hartmann to record an album of music by Carson Cooman recorded on the organ of Pauluskirche, Ulm, Germany.

Divine Art Records has for some time championed the music of prolific American composer Carson Cooman, and as well as two orchestral and one chamber albums has reached Volume 13 in the Cooman Organ Music series, performed by Erik Simmons. While that series takes a short break, Divine Art has welcomed the acclaimed German organist Philip Hartmann to its artist roster for a new album of organ works by Cooman recorded on the magnificent organ of Pauluskirche, Ulm, Germany, an instrument constructed by Thomas Gaida in 2013 after Gebrüder Link (1910).

While some of the works have appeared in the Simmons series, Hartmann provides a different interpretation on a different instrument which makes comparisons interesting as each player makes individual interpretative and stop-combination choices.

The new recording will be released worldwide (CD and digital/streaming) on 12 June 2020.

Invocazione brillante

Recorded in Ulm, Germany on June 19-21, 2019 – Coming June 2020

Performer: Philip Hartmann
Works (all composed by Carson Cooman):

Musica da processione (2018)
Arioso (2013)
Cortege, Intermezzo and Litany on the Joseph-Hymnus (2017)
Romanza (2000)
Praeludium in festo S. Philippi apostoli (2017)
Diptych for New Life (2017)
Arioso Cantabile (2018)
Suite in F (2017)
Prelude on ‘Das ist köstlich’ (2018)
Invocazione brillante (2017)
Two Nantucket Sketches (2018)
Lullaby (2018)
Sonatina No. 4 (2017)

Album playing time 76:14

Philip Hartmann

German organist Philip Hartmann studied musicology at the universities of Berlin and Hamburg followed by studies in church music at the Musikhochschule in Bremen. He also participated in organ masterclasses with Daniel Roth (Paris) and Ben van Oosten (The Hague). From 1986 to 1991, Hartmann was cantor and organist at the Protestant town church in Ehingen (Donau). Since 1991, he has worked as a church musician in Ulm at the Pauluskirche, and since 1999 also as a cathedral organist at Ulm Cathedral (Ulmer Münster). In 2004, he became the director of the Martin-Luther-Kantorei, and in 2005 he was appointed district cantor (Bezirkskantor) for the Ulm deanery.

Hartmann has played more than 600 organ recitals throughout Germany and Europe and has also appeared as organist and choirmaster in various TV and radio productions as well as on a solo CD of the organ music of Andreas Willscher, recorded on the 2013 Link-Gaida organ in the Pauluskirche. Hartmann has a particular interest in American and British organ music as well as contemporary compositions. He has given numerous world premieres, and about 40 works by contemporary composers have been dedicated to him.

Carson Cooman

Carson Cooman (b. 1982) is an American composer with a catalogue of hundreds of works in many forms—ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His music has been performed on all six inhabited continents in venues that range from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the basket of a hot air balloon. Cooman’s work appears on over forty recordings, including more than twenty complete CDs on the Naxos, Albany, Artek, Gothic, Divine Art, Métier, Diversions Altarus, Convivium, MSR Classics, Raven, and Zimbel labels. Cooman’s primary composition studies were with Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher, and James Willey. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD releases and more than 2,000 recordings available online. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He serves as an active consultant on music business matters to composers and performing organizations, specializing particularly in the area of composer estates and archives

News

Tags : Carson Cooman, Philip Hartmann

Métier to Release Tom Hicks “Blue Sounds” album of music by Camden Reeves

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

21 January, 2020

In January 2020 pianist Tom Hicks began recording with the composer Camden Reeves for their new record for Metier, Blue Sounds for Piano. Since 2013, Camden has been working on a series of blues-inspired works for Tom – Tangle-Beat Blues (2013), Nine Preludes (2016) and Blue Sounds (2019) – which Tom has performed across the USA and UK. Blue Sounds was premiered in October 2019 in Chicago, alongside the other two works. All three works were all recorded in January 2020, followed by their performance in a recital at St Pancras. London on 9 January.

Reeves is currently working on a new piano piece, Blue Times, especially for this album, its energetic shuffle rhythms providing a counterpoint to the harmonic stillness of Blue Sounds. The final piece in the program(me) will see Tom Hicks joined by cellist Jennifer Langridge for Still Above Ground, a work written in memory of Camden’s grandfather (a jazz musician and the composer’s life-long mentor).

Guernsey-born pianist Tom Hicks has been hailed as ‘an artist of magnificent pianism’; he has established himself as a brilliant soloist, has won multiple awards and is also very sought after for accompaniment and chamber recitals in the UK and USA and around Europe. This will be his first album for Metier.

Meticulous in detail, dramatic in structure and with a touch of the bizarre, the music of Camden Reeves ranges from chamber, to vocal, to orchestral. His name has also become particularly associated with the piano.

Reeves was born in Oxford in 1974. At the age of four he began learning music with his grandfather, a Jazz musician. Reeves read music at the University of Exeter, studying composition with Philip Grange, and at the age of just 22 was appointed Composer Fellow with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Further Composition studies followed with Roger Marsh and David Blake at the University of York. In 2000-2001, Reeves was awarded a CIMO Scholarship to study with Paavo Heininen on a CIMO Fellowship at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and he still cites his engagement with the music of Sibelius during this period as one of the most important influences underlying the organic and dramatic structure of his music.

Reeves’s catalogue includes five string quartets, two piano trios, music for voice/s, solo pieces (with and without piano), orchestral music and a large amount of solo piano music. Reeves’s music is available from Edition Peters and Composers Edition. A good number of works are available in the form of commercial recordings. Visit camdenreeves.com for more information. Reeves is currently Professor of Music at the University of Manchester, where he has taught since 2002.

Metier Records was established in 1992 and quickly gained a reputation as one of the foremost labels for contemporary music. It became part of the Divine Art Recordings Group in 2005.

Album Details

Title: Blue Sounds for Piano (MSV 28604)
Works (all composed by Camden Reeves):

Tangle-Beat Blues
Nine Preludes
Blue Sounds for Piano
Blue Times
Still Above Ground (with Jennifer Langridge, cello)

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Tags : Camden Reeves, Métier, Tom Hicks

Remembering Susanne Beer

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

8 January, 2020

R.I.P. Susanne Beer

We at Divine Art were devastated to hear of the untimely passing of cellist Susanne Beer in December 2019 after a battle with melanoma cancer at the age of 52. Susi was a lovely person in every way – a superb cellist, a fine educator and a dedicated supporter of young musicians through her Cello Corner organisation. Formerly principal cello with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she was also a superb soloist. In her memory the Cello Corner Foundation is being established to support young musicians well into the future through fine instrument loans, help with tuition and prizes at London 60min Concerts. The London Philharmonic Orchestra will act as an agent to collect funds towards the Foundation which will be transferred along with Gift Aid once the Foundation’s registration with the UK tax authorities has been completed. To make a donation please visit The Susanne Beer Cello Corner Foundation.

Susanne’s debut solo album ‘Cello Diverse’ (With pianist Gareth Hancock) contains music by Stravinsky, Brahms and Debussy and a beautiful arrangement of Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe. For every copy bought direct from our web store (CD or digital) during 2020, we will make a donation to the Cello Corner Foundation in memory of our friend Susi.

https://youtu.be/bqBYY83ye-g&w=720

Susanne Beer performing Gabriel’s Oboe

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Tags : Susanne Beer

New Album of Froberger Keyboard music from Divine Art

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

6 December, 2019

May 2020 will see the release of the new album by early music specialist Terence Charlston which contains the complete Fantasias and Canzonas by Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667) – this is the first ever recording of these works on clavichord. This recording was made in October 2019 at the Royal College of Music studios in London with engineer Anna Heath.

The new recording follows the highly praised first instalment of the complete Harpsichord Suites by Froberger (performed by Gilbert Rowland) on Divine Art’s sister label Athene – volume 2 to be recorded in July 2020. Froberger’s writing in the Suites demonstrates the foundation of the classic baroque dance suite and his individual keyboard works are no less full of interest and originality.

Froberger was a pioneer in the early baroque and a great influence on many of the great composers from Louis Couperin to Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. His Fantasias and Canzonas are amongst his most beautifully crafted yet most neglected works. Twelve of them survive in a meticulously written autograph manuscript dated 19 September 1649. They are particularly well suited to the clavichord if just the right instrument is available. In 2018, Charlston discovered the clavichord featured in this recording, quite by chance, and realised it would be ideal for this repertoire.

The clavichord is a reconstruction of a surviving southern German instrument of the later seventeenth-century made by Andreas Hermert in 2009. It takes us close to how the instrument might have sounded originally and provides an excellent means through which to hear the counterpoint of the most important German Baroque keyboard composer of the seventeenth century. Its dynamic nuance and expressive range, lute-like qualities, distinct timbral changes across its compass, and clarity contrast strongly with the ubiquitous modern-day performance tradition on harpsichord and organ.

Terence Charlston is one of the UK’s most respected musicians in the early-music field. His broad career encompasses many complementary roles including solo and chamber musician, choral and orchestral director, and teacher and academic researcher. He was a member of the quartet London Baroque between 1995 and 2007 with whom he gave nearly 500 concerts worldwide and since 2009 he has been a core member of the ensemble Florilegium. His large repertoire spans the Middle Ages to the present day reflecting a passionate interest in keyboard music of all types and styles. As well as being an important advocate of keyboard music of the 17^th and 18^th centuries Charlston is also a sought-after and devoted teacher. He founded the Department of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London in 1995 and is International Visiting Tutor in Harpsichord at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester . He joined the staff of the Royal College of Music, London in 2007 where he is Professor of Historical Keyboard Instruments, a personal Chair created for him in 2016.

Terence Charlston has appeared on over 80 recordings – this is his third since joining Divine Art, following ‘The Harmonious Thuringian’ (DDA 25122) and ‘Mersenne’s Clavichord’ (DDA 25134) both of which featured rare music but also unique instruments and which received glowing critical praise.

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Tags : clavichord, Johann Froberger, Terence Charlston

New Piano Albums from Composer Eric Craven

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

6 December, 2019

In 2020 Divine Art’s Métier label will release two volumes of ‘Pieces for Pianists’ by Manchester composer Eric Craven, performed by Mary Dullea. Volume 1 is likely to be issued in the early summer with Volume 2 following in the autumn. Each volume contains 25 Pieces, which were composed between 2016 and 2019.

If Craven is to be defined by anything it will be his pioneering development of his Non-Prescriptive methods of composing. He has evolved new ways of notation which, to differing degrees, encourage the performer to become part of the compositional process. His contribution to the field of experimental music has been widely recognised. In the September 2015 issue of Gramophone, Philip Clark gives more than equal consideration to Craven in an article which discusses new ways and innovations by Wolff, Feldman and Finnissy.

Craven presents the two volumes of Pieces for Pianists in his Non-Prescriptive Low-order format which means that there are no instructions, no guidance à propos performance. The performer is free to decide upon the parameters of dynamics, tempo, phrasing, pedalling and the general articulation of the notes and, by doing so, determines the outcome of each performance. The pieces are all quite short, monothematic and tonal, teeming with reference. They present an astonishing kaleidoscope of styles and genre: echoes of Prokofiev to Poulenc, Bernstein to Bartók.

Pieces for Pianists is Craven’s fourth collaboration with the wonderfully talented pianist Mary Dullea, who will be recording both volumes in December at the Menuhin Hall in Cobham, Surrey, with Adaq Khan, now established as one of Britain’s most accomplished producer/engineers.

Previous albums featuring Eric Craven and Mary Dullea

Coming Soon News

Tags : Eric Craven, Mary Dullea, Pieces for Pianists

Robin Walker’s Turning Towards You A MusicWeb Recording of the Year

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

6 December, 2019

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MusicWeb International critic Richard Hanlon has named Turning Towards You: Music By Robin Walker one of his 2019 Recordings of the Year!

“I have recently begun to discover the music of Robin Walker, a York-born composer in his early sixties whose music invariably projects the tang and the loam of the northern English landscape. Turning Towards You is an absorbing miscellany of seven of his works, all of which blend terrific craftsmanship with profoundly beautiful sound. His Double Concerto, A Prayer and a Dance of Two Spirits for recorder, violin and strings is a real find. Walker is another independent spirit who has much to say, and who manages to do so in original and accessible terms.”
—Richard Hanlon, MusicWeb International

See his full, original review

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Tags : John Turner, MusicWeb International, Recording of the Year, Robin Walker, Turning Towards You

Royal Academy of Music announces 2019 Honours List

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

4 December, 2019

The Royal Academy of Music has announced their 2019 Honours List, and three Divine Artists have been recognized! Composer Basil Athanasiadis has been named as an Associate Member of the Royal Academy, composer Philip Cashian has been named as an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy, and pianist Andrew West has been named as a Fellow of the Royal Academy. Congratulations to all three of these artists on these prestigious honours. See their Divine Art releases below:

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Tags : Andrew West, Basil Athanasiadis, Philip Cashian, Royal Academy of Music

Daniel Kepl Interviews Liz Johnson about her Intricate Web Recording

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

4 December, 2019

Critic Daniel Kepl interviews composer Dr. Liz Johnson about her Mètier release, Intricate Web:

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Intricate Web: Music By Liz Johnson

Liz Johnson is a British composer with a very special gift and distinctive style, definitely in the avant-garde mold yet not totally alien to ‘traditional-music’ lovers. ‘Intricate Web’ is not only the title of one of the quartets here (there are four numbered String Quartets and two other works for the quartet) but also accurately describes her compositional technique which is complex and detailed, requiring top class performers. It may also describe the way in which the pieces here have been assembled, splitting cello solos and vocal pieces between the quartets to create a web of fascinating sounds and textures.

The Fitzwilliam String Quartet is undoubtedly one of today’s most celebrated ensembles with a fine reputation in the world of new music. Cellist Heather Tuach plays solo in the breathtaking Cello Suite. Soprano Loré Lixenberg deals with the immense difficulty of the writing in the Jo Shapcott Settings and Ronald Woodley provides a magical performance on several clarinets. In all, a superb introduction to a major composer deserving wide recognition. Over 157 minutes of music!

Video

Tags : Interview, Intricate Web, Liz Johnson

Critical acclaim

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

4 November, 2019

While we are waiting for a number of exciting new projects to be confirmed, DO check out the reviews that our recordings receive from the music press – ‘out of this world’ says Music Notes on one recent release. Click ‘browse’ – ‘reviews’ in the top menu or visit via composer, artist or title to see all reviews for each recording.

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Two Divine Art Artists Share 2nd Place Finish in The American Prize for Performance

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

2 October, 2019

The American Prize’s Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music was announced today, and TWO Divine Art artists tied for 2nd Place for their performances released on Métier! Congratulations to both Chris Gekker for his award for his performances on Ghost Dialogues, and Ian Mitchell for his performances on Isn’t This a Time?: American Music for Clarinet! See the full announcement on The American Prize website.