Divine Art Records adds to its roster of new releases for the first quarter of 2023 with a collection of superb and approachable music by Australian composer John Carmichael, whose overall style can perhaps best be described as neo-Romantic, and which will appeal to a wide audience which may not be keen on the more avant-garde new music. His Piano Concerto, while being totally original, carries definite echoes of Rachmaninov.
John Carmichael was born 1930 in Melbourne, Australia. He studied piano and composition at the University Conservatorium there, followed by two years piano studies with Marcel Ciampi at the Conservatoire National in Paris. Further composition studies followed with Arthur Benjamin and Anthony Milner in London while Carmichael joined the first group of musicians working for the newly established Council for Music Therapy, for whom he introduced music therapy programs at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Netherden Mental Hospital, Surrey. In 1960 he became musical director of the Spanish Dance group Eduardo Y Navarra touring extensively with them both abroad and in Britain; foreign languages are one of his passions – the latest challenge being Chinese.
The album includes duos, solos, a Piano Concerto (exuberant pianism matched with string orchestra, with a Caribbean flavoured final movement), a Piano Trio aspiring towards the light, works designed to bring the viola, regarded by many as the Cinderella of the string instruments, into the spotlight, a Divertimento for flute, oboe, clarinet & piano; overall a varied collection of works with melodic elements being an important feature. Joining this celebration of the potential in new orchestral and chamber music are many of Britain’s most highly talented artists, including pianist Antony Gray whose recent recordings of Saint-Saëns piano music for Divine Art have attracted glowing praise and are the label’s top sellers of 2022.
Music of John Carmichael (DDA 25240)
Works and Artists:
Piano Concerto No, 2
Antony Gray (piano); St. Paul’s Sinfonia; Andrew Morley (conductor)
Piano Trio “Toward the Light”
Paul Manley (violin); Andrew Fuller (cello); Michael Dussek (piano)
Aria & Finale
Contrasts
Morgan Goff (viola); Antony Gray (piano)
Short Cuts
Susan Torke (flute); Clare Hoskins (oboe); Shelley Levy (clarinet); Antony Gray (piano)
Album duration approximately 74 minutes Recorded in London, summer 2022 Release date to be announced – around February / March 2023
The New Year will see the release of a new album by esteemed American composer and organist Carson Cooman, from Divine Art. The label has issued a number of Cooman’s recordings and is also producing the series of Cooman’s own compositions played by Erik Simmons (currently at volume 15). The Divine Art catalog currently includes 199 of Cooman’s compositions.
On Cooman’s new album ‘Companions’ he presents a program of contemporary music for organ recorded on the remarkable post-romantic Thomas Gaida organ of the Pauluskirche in Ulm, Germany. The album features ten works by nine composers representing six countries. The music varies widely in character and scope, from smaller character pieces and meditations to several dramatic, large-scale works. The final piece is the grand 15th organ symphony of English composer Bernard Heyes.
Carson Cooman (b. 1982) is an American composer with a catalog 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-five 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 3,000 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.
Divine Art Records will step out of its usual classical-contemporary genres to release a special Christmas digital single. Light of the Worldis a beautiful new carol with words and music by Robin White, a well-known name in English light music circles, whose recent album From Russia (Divine Art DDA 25223) is proving successful – and well–received by critics. The carol is performed by Alban Voices, with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by the composer.
Light of the World will be available for download and streaming from all main platforms, and as download only, direct from Divine Art
Métier Records, the new-music label of Divine Art Recordings, will be releasing many new titles in 2023, among them an organ recording of a rather unique nature!
Les ombres du Fantôme is a set of fourteen improvisations created by Robert Sholland Justin Paterson that act as thematic shadows of Gaston Leroux’s novel Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (1910). They shadow the narrative, themes, characters and events of the book. The improvisations were recorded using the organs of Coventry and Arundel Cathedrals in July 2021, some with soprano and saxophone/bass clarinet. They use an invented musical language, and explore the acoustics of those buildings, the gesture and the materiality of the instruments in physical, spiritual and sonic space that is enhanced and extended (by Justin Paterson) through recording technology and electronic augmentations.
Robert Sholl is a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music which is supporting this project, and both he and Justin Paterson also teach at the University of West London. The album will be scheduled for release in the first half of 2023 ((exact date to be advised).
Title: Les ombres du Fantôme (Shadows of the Phantom) Label : Métier Catalogue number : MEX 77105 Tracks (all composed/improvised by Robert Sholl and Justin Paterson with additional material by Anna McCready and Andy Visser):
The Ghost with the Death’s Head
You must love me’
The angels wept tonight
At the graveyard at Perros-Guirec
The enchanted violin: the resurrection of Lazarus
The Chandelier
Masked ball
Souterrain: ‘Everything that is underground belongs to him’
‘I am Don Juan Triumphant’
Christine! Christine!
From the cellars to the house on the lake
In the torture chamber
La mort du Fantôme
Epilogue
Performers:
Robert Sholl (organ) Anna McCready (soprano) Andrew Visser (saxophone/bass clarinet) Justin Paterson (electronic wizardry)
Recorded at Coventry and Arundel Cathedrals July 2021. Producer: Justin Paterson Recording Engineers Mike Exarchos (aka Stereo Mike) and Justin Paterson
Métier Records (the new-music arm of Divine Art Recordings) is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of an album of choral music by New England composer Rodney Lister, following a recording of chamber and vocal works (‘Faith-Based Initiatives’, Métier MSV 28618) which will hit the streets and online stores on September 9.
The new album (title not yet decided) will be performed by the members of the Church of the Advent, Boston, Massachusetts conducted by Mark Dwyer with pianist Julia Carty, and recording is due to take place in September, with a release date of early spring 2023.
Rodney Lister has been teaching at Greenwood Music Camp in western Massachusetts for around 30 years. The facility, described by Rebecca Fischer as “an intensive musical experience for teenagers in a natural environment, fertile for personal and artistic growth and development.”, has been the springboard for the development of countless musical careers. While the program is primarily focused on chamber music, all students also participate in the camp choir, and almost every year Rodney Lister has composed new choral works – which although intended to be ‘tried-out’ by the campers, are in no way less than first class compositions of distinction. Partly inspired by his teachers Peter Maxwell Davies, who wrote stunning works for ‘less experienced performers’, and Virgil Thomson, with his innate gift for brilliant settings, Lister began setting texts by leading poets in a fairly transparent tonal language. After a while he began to expand into a more complex and fluid tonality, inspired by Virgil Thomson’s Wheat Fields at Noon and perhaps surprisingly, also by Gesualdo’s modal motet Morro Lasso.
Rodney Lister was co-founder and director of “Music Here and Now”, a concert series for new music by New England composers, has received a great number of commissions and fellowships and has had his music performed by leading artists at Tanglewood, Edinburgh Fringe, the Library of Congress and many other venues from New York to London. He has also been a busy and sought-after pianist. Rodney is currently on the faculties of Boston School of Music and the preparatory school of the New England Conservatory, as well as teaching at Harvard University and playing a leading role at Greenwood Music Camp. Stephen Sutton, CEO at Divine Art Recordings’ USA office, said, “It was very good news to hear that Rodney wished to present a recording of his choral work; having recently put together his first album for Métier, I was aware that we have here a very fine composer deserving of even greater international recognition, who creates superb works which seem to be mainstream, individualistic and inventive all at the same time.”
Choral music by Rodney Lister
Label: Métier Catalog number: MSV 28630 Performers: Choir of the church of the Advent, Boston, Mass Conductor: Mark Dwyer Piano: Julia Carty Works – this is a working program and final tracks will be most but not all of these. Author of text named in parentheses:
Of Mere Being – five poems (Wallace Stevens)
Stanzas in Meditation – Stanzas XV, XVI and XXXVIII (Gertrude Stein)
Divine Art Records, which itself has offices in both the USA and UK, is proud to announce a new album, recorded in London, of the ‘Spanish Meditations and Dances’ by the most excellent American composer Gregory Fritze. The works are performed by two of England’s most celebrated soloists and regulars in the catalogs of Divine Art and its sibling labels Athene and Métier: Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin) and Roderick Chadwick (piano).
“Spanish Meditations and Dances” for violin and piano was composed and arranged especially for Peter Sheppard Skærved in 2021. It is a set of seventeen pieces that showcase the violinist in both expressive and exciting technical playing. The titles of the movements are from the many towns and regions of Spain that have been a great inspiration in the composer’s music over the years.
The six exciting dances – Tenerife Dance, Madrid ; Variations on a Theme by Luigi Boccherini, Bilbao; at the Guggenheim; Lliria Dance, Barcelona; Gaudi Dance; and Carcaixent Dance – are interspersed with eleven expressive meditations.
Gregory Fritze is a prize-winning composer and Fulbright Scholar. His compositions have been performed more than one thousand times in twenty-six countries. He has written over one hundred compositions for orchestra, band, chamber ensembles and soloists. He won over sixty composition awards including Menzione d’Onore (highest award given) of the Mario Bernardo Angelo-Comneno International Music Competition by the Accademia Angelica Costantiniana Arti E Scienze (Rome, Italy) for “String Quartet”, First Prize Winner of Reneé Fisher Composition Prize for “Piano Sonata” and others.
His music is published by several publishers in the US, South America and Europe and has been recorded on Albany Records, MSR Classics and others. He has been a guest lecturer at many universities and music festivals in the United States, Canada, Japan, South America and Europe. He taught at Berklee College of Music as Professor and Chair of Composition. He attained a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Composition from the Boston Conservatory and Indiana University respectively.
Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin) and Roderick Chadwick (piano) are both highly popular, talented and critically acclaimed musicians. Both have extensive concert and recording careers and have appeared together and separately on a number of recordings. More detailed biographies can be supplied on request.
The recording was made in London in the early part of 2022 and the album which will be issued on CD and all digital formats worldwide is scheduled for release between November 2022 and February 2023 (date to be confirmed).
“Spanish Meditations and Dances” (DDA 25239)
Composer: Gregory Fritze Performers: Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin) and Roderick Chadwick (piano). Label: Divine Art ALBUM RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 22 – FEBRUARY 2023 TBC
Peter Sheppard Skærved & Roderick Chadwick Recordings on Divine Art
The OPUS KLASSIK is a top prize for classical music in Germany and is awarded by the Verein zur Förderung der Klassischen Musik e. V. The 2022 Award will be presented to 45 winners across 27 categories as selected by a specialist jury comprised of representatives from the music and media industry. The winners will be announced on the weekend of 9 October at the official awards ceremony in Berlin.
At The Heart Of The Piano
A special 3-CD / triple digital album of great Romantic works by one of the world’s most accomplished pianists specialising in works of that era. These stunning performances of Busoni’s Chaconne (after J S Bach) and Berg’s Sonata are receiving their first release; the other tracks were previously issued (on CD only, not digitally ) by Bayer and have been newly remastered.
“Schliessmann’s commanding performance is beautifully variegated… [his] technique is rock solid. Considered, polished reading… magnificently powerful, warmth and academic integrity” —Colin Clarke, International Piano
In the world of serious recorder music, John Turner has been at the top of the tree for many years, as soloist and member of illustrious ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He features as the main attraction in ‘The Whistling Book’ – a double CD/digital album to be released worldwide by Divine Art in November 2022.
Most of the works on this double album are included in the Forsyth catalogue of recorder music, and many of them have become standard repertoire pieces for the recorder, known and loved all over the world, and frequently set as test and examination pieces. Alan Bullard’s Recipes, John Golland’s New World Dances, John Turner’s Four Diversions and Robin Walker’s A Book of Song and Dance all fall into this category. The album first appeared on a special release by Forsyth Bros under the title ‘John and Peter’s Whistling Book in 1998; this reissue adds three new items, Robin Walker’s ecstatic and virtuoso Her Rapture for solo recorder, John Addison’s Spring Dances for solo recorder, written for John after a memorable visit to the composer’s Vermont home, and, for the more adventurous, Kokopelli by Richard Whalley, inspired by an American fertility deity, with magical sounds played on a prepared piano by the composer.
John Turner and his piano partner Peter Lawson are both stalwarts of the English music scene and have made substantial numbers of recordings for many labels over the years; Turner appears on 25 current Divine Art group titles and Lawson 6. This album will (re)introduce a host of works epitomising the best in modern recorder music from the UK.
Release date: scheduled for 11 November 2022 Total playing time c. 126 minutes Three works receive their premiere recording – recorded 2021 (Spring Dances and her Rapture) and 2017 (Kokopelli). All other works previously appeared on Forsyth FS001-002, recorded in 1998
Works and Artists:
John Turner (recorder) & Peter Lawson (piano):
Skally Skarecrow’s Whistling Book (Geoffrey Poole)
Following several well-received albums of Simon Mold’s vocal and choral music in recent years, a recording of his Lenten cantata Passiontide for soloists, choir and organ is currently underway in the UK. Premiered in Kent in 2009, Passiontide was conceived as an alternative to Stainer’s Crucifixion, telling the story of Holy Week in the manner of a small oratorio and including several hymns for choir and audience in a nod to the earlier composer’s well-known choral work. Simon Mold has compiled an eclectic libretto that combines some quirky 17th-century metrical Gospel narrative with a variety of choral and solo reflections; the result is a strikingly accessible work that explores a range of emotions with a sure feel for word-setting and an irrepressible tunefulness, while nonetheless capable of many passages of gravitas, poignancy and lingering beauty.
Highlights include dramatic moments in the Garden of Gethsemane and before Pilate, a searching setting of the Reproaches for choir and soloist, the heart-rending farewell duet for Mary and Jesus and a final scene that taps into the feelings of believer and non-believer alike.
The Gospel Narrator is Philip Leech, tenor (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), Jesus is sung by experienced song recitalist Stephen Cooper (Southwell Minster) and the soprano soloist is Helen Bailey (Royal Academy Opera), along with bass-baritone Jeremy Leaman (Loughborough University) as a taunting Pilate. Roxanne Gull (Christ’s College, Cambridge and Lincoln Cathedral) conducts The Knighton Consort made up of choral specialists. The organist is David Cowen (Oxford, Paris and currently Organist of Leicester Cathedral).
Passiontide (duration around 75 minutes is scheduled for worldwide release in February 2023 in time for the Passiontide and Easter season. It consists of 24 sections.
Simon Mold was born in Buxton, UK in 1957, and following success as a treble soloist in the North West of England became a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral under the legendary Dr Stanley Vann. After reading English Language and Medieval Literature at Durham University, where he was a cathedral choral scholar, Simon embarked upon a teaching career principally in the south of England, and sang in several cathedral choirs. Upon retirement from teaching he joined Leicester Cathedral Choir just in time to take part in the acclaimed Richard III reinterment ceremonies in 2015. His interest in composition began at Peterborough where he directed a performance of one of his own choral pieces in the cathedral whilst still a boy chorister. Subsequently Simon’s music has been widely published, performed, recorded and broadcast: for instance his anthem Come, praise the saints, for choir, organ and 3 trumpets was conducted by John Scott in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and his well-known Candlelight Carol featured in Lesley Garrett’s television series Christmas Voices. Three albums of Simon Mold’s vocal and choral music have been released in recent years, and his verse collection Poetry of the Peak was published in 2019. Simon has also been a regular contributor to various musical and literary magazines, and has written widely on diverse aspects of music, language and literature.
Simon Mold: Passiontide – a Lenten Cantata (DDA 25238)
Artists
Philip Leech (tenor)
Stephen Cooper (baritone)
Helen Bailey (soprano)
Jeremy Leaman (bass-baritone)
The Knighton Consort
Roxanne Gull (conductor)
Dates
Recording dates: April and June 2022 Venue: Mountsorrel Methodist Church, Leicestershire Release date: scheduled for February 10, 2023
Reviews of previous Simon Mold recordings
“Hush Little Child” – Christmas carols by Simon Mold and Antony Baldwin: “Warmly recommended” – MusicWeb International. “Simon Mod;s writing frequently reveals a fresh creativity whilst his settings of the texts are very convincing.”
– Cathedral Music Review
“Simon Mold: Song Cycles: “Mold’s music is unashamedly conservative, finding stylistic parallels with folk-inspired composers such as Vaughan-Williams. Mold’s song settings keep the home fires burning for highly approachable lyrical expression and amply demonstrate an unerring ear for rhythmic stress and a sure sense of converting feeling into sounds.”
– Opera Today
“The Beatific Vision” – Choral Organ Music by Simon Mold and Charles Paterson: “Bravo. There is much to enjoy on this CD. The musical language (of the Mold pieces) is immediately accessible and serves the text admirably.”
Divine Art will be adding another exceptionally talented composer to its roster soon. To be recorded later this year, the new album is a celebration of the chamber music of Devon-born composer Ian Stephens, who has made a name for himself with acclaimed works for choir, orchestra, brass band and small ensemble. A cellist himself, his deep love for string instruments shines through in these five pieces; his music has been described as containing “a fathomless richness of harmony, sumptuous depth of orchestration.”
The world-class Fitzwilliam String Quartet is joined by two outstanding guests, clarinettist Mandy Burvill and oboist Jonathan Small, in recordings of two string quartets, a clarinet quintet, an oboe quintet and a duo for clarinet and cello.
Born in Sidmouth, Devon, Ian studied music at Bristol University, and is based near Liverpool. His music has been performed by ensembles including the Brodsky Quartet, Choir of King’s College Cambridge, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Ballet Sinfonia, Salisbury Cathedral Choir and Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4. He is active as a workshop leader, cellist and double bassist, and is a Composition Tutor at Chetham’s School of Music and a mentor for the Rushworth Young Composer scheme.
Fitzwilliam String Quartet: Lucy Russell & Andrew Roberts, violins, Alan George, viola; Heather Tuach, cello
The recording is being done in two sessions, both at Wyastone Leys concert hall in Monmouth. The first is 17-18 December 2022, the second is March or April 2023, to be confirmed.
Divine Art’s new-music label, Métier, is to release a new album of solos, duos and a trio by the Macedonian-born composer, violinist and educator Mihailo Trandafilovski — all written for close friends and long-term collaborators: Peter Sheppard Skærved (violin), Neil Heyde (cello), Roger Heaton and Linda Merrick (clarinets), Hugh Millington and Saki Kato (guitars), Roderick Chadwick (piano), and Mihailo himself. The recording will be issued on CD and in all digital formats in November 2022.
This album explores idiomatic and uncompromising techniques which, like other aspects of the musical language, stretch in different but complementary directions: spectral / elemental sonorities and more traditional approaches to virtuosity are bound by both harmonic / formal systems and physical directness. “These are pieces”, Mihailo says, “which can only come to life through deeply dedicated performances, in which such techniques become integrated and natural; such are those by the maverick musicians on this recording”.
Peter Sheppard Skærved, Mihailo’s violin-partner in the Kreutzer Quartet, wrote: “Mihailo is a performer-composer in the mould of Telemann, Bartók, Joachim and Liszt. Like them, it is quite impossible to separate his compositional and instrumental imaginations. His contribution to the violin [repertoire] is extraordinary – his works are gifts for audiences and players alike.”
Divine Art CEO Stephen Sutton says that he is delighted to have this new recording in the quickly-growing catalog of contemporary music on Métier, adding “We saw from Mihailo’s previous album ‘Diptych’ (Metier MSV 28582) that within what we might call ‘mainstream contemporary’, that he has a style which is individual, gripping and rather special. That he collaborates closely with his chosen performers means that we have definitive performances from the start.”
Mihailo Trandafilovski studied at Michigan State University (BMus) and the Royal College of Music in London (MMus, DMus). His studies and research have been supported by the Open Society Institute, the Macedonian Ministries of Science and Culture and the British Government (with a Chevening scholarship); among other awards are the United Music Publishers Prize for composition at the RCM and the Panče Pešev Award for best new work at the contemporary music festival Days of Macedonian Music. His music has been issued on several labels and both performed and broadcast widely.
He is a violinist in the Kreutzer Quartet, with whom he has performed and recorded extensively (with many premiere CD and DVD recordings on Métier) and held residencies at Tate St Ives, University of York and Goldsmiths College, among others; he has an avid interest in the application of new music to pedagogy, for which he was awarded his doctorate; and has led a number of shared projects among the arts promoting contemporary artistic creativity to a wider audience.
Polychromy (MSV 29629)
Mihailo Trandafilovski
Chaconne (violin solo – Peter Sheppard Skærved)
Grain-Song (violin solo – Peter Sheppard Skærved)
Šarenilo (violin duo) – Peter Sheppard Skærved & Mihailo Trandafilovski
Polychromy (cello solo – Neil Heyde)
Weaxan (clarinet trio – Linda Merrick, Peter Sheppard Skærved & Roderick Chadwick)
Sandglass (clarinet solo – Roger Heaton)
String Dune(s) (guitar duo – Saki Kato & Hugh Millington)
Recorded in London in April 2022 (recording engineer Adaq Khan) Release date: November 11, 2022
Divine Art’s new-music division, Métier, is to release an album of music for flute by Irish composer John Buckley. All will be premiere recordings, to be made under the composer’s supervision with engineer Chris Corrigan, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Chris has produced several previous albums for Divine Art and Métier, labels that are developing a strong relationship with the first-class art-music scene in Ireland.
The composer introduces the new set:
“Compositions for flute constitute a significant aspect of my musical output as a composer and now span a period of fifty years. Between 1967 and 1974, I studied flute with the legendary Doris Keogh, in the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and she greatly encouraged my early efforts at composition. In the interim I have written a wide range of compositions involving flute: solo flute, flute ensembles, various chamber music combinations, a flute concerto, and works for flute and piano.
Composed in 1973, the earliest flute work in my catalogue is Three Pieces for Solo Flute, while the most recent work is In Memoriam Doris Keogh, for flute and piano which was completed in 2022. Both works are included in this album.
Over the years, I have composed a great number of works for Ireland’s leading concert flautist William Dowdall. These include Two Fantasias for Alto Flute (2004), Sea Echoes (2008) for flute with glissando headjoint and Constellations (2009) for multiple overdubbed flutes (bass flute, alto flute, C flute, piccolo). All of these works are included in the current album.
There are two works specifically composed for the album: Five Études for Two Flutes and In Memoriam Doris Keogh. The études are reinterpretations of earlier pieces for two violins, while In Memoriam Doris Keogh is a three-movement piece for flute and piano reflecting on my flute teacher’s broad musical interests.
I am delighted to be able to work with such wonderful flautists as Emma Coulthard (another former pupil of Doris Keogh), Emma Halnan and pianist David Appleton, who also performs two short pieces for piano solo.”
Boireann (MSV 28628)
Five Etudes for Two Flutes
Boireann (flute/piano)
In Memoriam Doris Keogh (flute/piano)
Constellations (flutes)
Three Pieces for solo flute
Two Fantasias for solo flute
Sea Echoes (solo flute)
Airflow (solo flute)
+ Two solo piano works
(all by John Buckley)
Artists:
Emma Coulthard (flutes) Emma Hanlan (flute) David Appleton (piano)
Availability: CD and digital audio Recording dates: flute solos and duos: April 11 & 12. Other works: August 2022 Release date: to be confirmed, probably Jan/Feb 2023.
John Buckley
Born in Templeglantine, Co. Limerick, in 1951, John Buckley studied flute with Doris Keogh and composition with James Wilson at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. His subsequent composition studies were in Cardiff with the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott, and with John Cage. He has written a diverse range of work, from solo instruments to full orchestra. The list includes numerous commissions, amongst them Concerto for Organ and Orchestra and Campane in Aria for the National Concert Hall, Rivers of Paradise for the official opening of the Concert Hall at the University of Limerick, Maynooth Te Deum for the bicentenary of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and A Mirror into the Light for Camerata Ireland’s inaugural concert, as well as many works for RTÉ.
John Buckley’s catalogue now extends to over 110 works, which have been performed and broadcast in more than fifty countries worldwide. His compositions have represented Ireland on five occasions at the International Rostrum of Composers and at five ISCM festivals. Amongst his awards are the Varming Prize (1977), the Macaulay Fellowship (1978), the Arts Council’s Composers’ Bursary (1982), and the Toonder Award (1991). In 1984 he was elected a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists. His music has been recorded on the Anew, Altarus, Black Box, Marco Polo, Lyric FM, Atoll, Celestial Harmonies, Divine Art and Métier labels. He has made numerous broadcasts on music and music education for RTÉ and Lyric FM, and his compositions are available on over twenty commerical recordings.
He has been awarded both a PhD and a DMus by the National University of Ireland and was senior lecturer in music at St Patrick’s College, Dublin City University, between 2001 and 2017. A monograph on his life and work, Constellations: The Life and Music of John Buckley by Benjamin Dwyer, was published in May 2011 by Carysfort Press. Further information can be found at johnbuckleycomposer.com
Emma Coulthard studied Flute and Recorder at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with Doris Keogh, and Musicology at Trinity College Dublin. Emma took a keen interest in contemporary music from early in her career, collaborating with Irish Composers including John Buckley, Martin O’Leary and Paul Hayes in the early 1990s. Emma was the soloist for Paul Hayes’s Prix Italia piece ‘Mass Production” and as a singer worked with Michael Holohan on settings of Seamus Heaney poems. In 2018, whilst living in Wales Emma returned to her work with Irish Composers, commissioning and premiering several new works from Fergus Johnston, Paul Hayes, John McLachlan, Graínne Mulvey, Jenn Kirby and Anna Murray which led to performances in Tokyo, Sofia, Cardiff, Dublin and Maynooth. In 2022 she was part of Benjamin Dwyer’s SacrumProfanum project, which has been released on Farpoint, and the ‘Connected Skies’ project with Angela Slater funded by ACE. She has been broadcast on BBC and RTÉ radio and television, and has been published by Music Sales and Trinity.
David Appleton’s most notable body of performance experience has been with the six piano ensemble Piano Circus, with whom he was a co-director between 1994 and 2014. As well as extensive touring in Europe, South East Asia and the USA and South America with the group, notable recordings include the album Transmission (Observer CD of the week in 2001), Future Sound of London with Max Richter and Skin & Wire with the legendary drummer Bill Bruford (2009.) Collaborations also include Pete Townsend: The Lighthouse at Sadlers Wells, Michael Clark: Oh My Goddess, also at Sadlers Wells and touring, plus combining abseiling with pianistic endeavour with aerial theatre company Scarabeus. Work with piano duo partner Kate Ryder (1998-2008) included Three Little Scandals film and live music at the Barbican and critically acclaimed performances of Stockhausen’s Mantra.
Emma Halnan first came to prominence as woodwind category winner of BBC Young Musician 2010. She has since appeared at major venues worldwide, and has performed concertos with orchestras such as the London Mozart Players and the European Union Chamber Orchestra. Other competition successes include the Sussex Prize for Woodwind in the Royal Overseas League Competition 2019 and first prize in the Sir Karl Jenkins/Arts Club Award 2016. Emma was selected as a “Making Music” Young Artist 2018-20, and is a City Music Foundation Artist.
Emma studied at the Royal Academy of Music with William Bennett and Kate Hill, and afterwards with Robert Winn. She previously studied at the Purcell School with Anna Pope.
Emma was principal flute of the European Union Youth Orchestra 2014-16. She has also freelanced with orchestras including the London Mozart Players, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Emma is a highly reputed and very dedicated teacher. She teaches privately, for the University of Cambridge, and at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Her pupils have gained places in national ensembles and at various conservatoires (both junior and senior departments).
The irrepressible violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved is busy preparing quite a number of recordings, of both modern and ancient music, solo and with his Kreutzer Quartet. Next in line from the Athene label is a fascinating and historically informative collection of music from the cultural centre of Modena, around 1690.
The album contains eight pieces from the collection of partitas, Op. 13, by Giovanni Battista Vitali, 14 items by Giuseppe Colombi from a compendium of works published in or near Modena, and four pieces from the Rost Codex, by an anonymous hand. Several of the Vitali works have been recorded in their version for chamber ensemble, but it is believed that this is the first recording of all the works for the solo instrument. The album booklet will contain a note about the ‘crossover’ between solo and ensemble variants of works from this part of the late 17th century.
The recording was completed in February and is to be scheduled for release in the autumn, the exact date to be announced in due course.
Peter Sheppard Skærved has built a formidable reputation for his musicological research, as well as his writing, teaching, and concert and recording performances, and has access to some of the world’s most treasured instruments, several of which are featured in Athene’s ongoing ‘Great Violins’ series. On this recording Peter plays a recently rediscovered Andrea Amati violin from 1572 and an even earlier, though anonymous, instrument from Brescia. The album is in a way a sequel to the recent ‘Florish in the Key – the Solo Violin in London 1650-1700’ (Athene ATH 23211).
Athene Records was originally founded in 1993 to issue recordings of historic square pianos; it was acquired by Divine Art and is the group’s main home for early and baroque music and historic instruments.
The violin in Modena (ATH 23214)
Partite sopra diverse sonate, Op. 13 (Giovanni Battista Vitali)
Toccata
Bergamasca per lettera B
Ruggiero per la Lettera B
Capriccio sopra li cinque passi
Capriccio di Tromba
Furlana
Passo e Mezzo per la Lettera E
Barabano
From ‘Scordature e Composizioni Varie’ (Giuseppe Colombi)
Tromba da violino solo, Mus. F. 283 e Mus E .282
A Corde Doppie, Mus. E. 34
Allemanda, Mus. F. 283
Corrente, Mus. F.283
Corrente a Due Corde, Mus. F.283 e E. 280
Allemanda, Mus. F. 283
Allemanda, Mus. F. 283
Sarabanda, Mus. F. 283
Giga, Mus. F. 283
Sarabanda, Mus. F. 283
Allemanda, Mus. F.283
Scordatura, Mus. F 283 e E. 282
Ciacona a Solo, Mus. E.282
Passemezzo, Mus. F.283
From the Rost Codex (anonymous)
Allemanda in D major
Allemanda in A major
Allemanda in A major
Sonata in A major
‘Mus’ references are to scores contained in Manuscript MS 244 in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena (volume DM 1240)
English harpsichordist Gilbert Rowland is preparing the third volume in his ongoing series presenting the complete Suites for Harpsichord by Johann Jakob Froberger. The album is to be recorded at Holy Trinity Church, Weston, Hertfordshire on 11-14 July 2022, with engineer John Taylor who produced all of Gilbert’s previous Divine Art and Athene recordings. The first two volumes attracted much praise:
“A glorious sound and enjoyable music recorded in a resonant acoustic, giving a truly luscious sound. Rowland plays with energy and a good forward drive.” —David Griffel (Harpsichord & Fortepiano) on volume. 1
“One of the finest recordings of Froberger’s harpsichord music I have heard, with a wonderful-sounding instrument and magnificent playing from Rowland.” —Stuart Sillitoe (MusicWeb International) on volume 1
“Froberger’s music is individual in nature and ground-breaking – he was one of the first composers to settle the ‘dance-movement’ style. These are thrilling and authoritative recordings by Gilbert Rowland of wonderful music.” —John Pitt (New Classics) on volume 2
“Froberger’s music – in this splendid rendition by Gilbert Rowland – reveals huge variety and baroque beauty. Clever, ingenious and melodious engaging and attractive works.” —Stuart Millson (Quarterly Review) on volume 2
Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) was a highly accomplished composer of the middle baroque and is usually credited with inventing the ‘baroque suite’ used with variations by Bach, Handel and countless other composers; certainly it was his idea to set the ‘backbone’ of the Suite as the four dance movements of allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. He was extremely prolific and indeed several works (including Harpsichord Suites) have been discovered only recently.
Gilbert Rowland first studied the harpsichord with Millicent Silver. Whilst still a student at the Royal College of Music, he made his debut at Fenton House 1970 and first appeared at the Wigmore Hall in 1973.
His mentors have included Kenneth Gilbert and Fernando Valenti. Recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, appearances at major festivals in this country and abroad, together with broadcasts for Capital Radio and Radio 3 have helped to establish his reputation as one of Britain’s leading harpsichordists.
His numerous records of works by Scarlatti, Soler, Rameau and Fischer have received considerable acclaim from the national press. The recording of the 13-CD set of Soler sonatas with Naxos was completed in 2006. He also recorded a CD of Sonatas by Albero for London Independent Records, which was released in 2009. He joined Divine Art in 2010 to record the harpsichord suites by Handel, followed by those of Froberger and Mattheson. Gilbert Rowland is assigned to Divine Art’s specialist early music label, Athene.
J. J. Froberger: Suites for Harpsichord, Volume 3 (ATH 23213 – 2CD set, double digital album)
New signings to the Métier New Music division of Divine Art include composer Dorone Paris and saxophonist Noam Dorembus, both Israelis, though Dorone Paris has been resident in Ireland ten years.
They have collaborated on the recording of three modernist/experimental works for saxophone, to be released as a lower-price ‘mini-album’ CD, and digital /streaming options, under the title COAL. The recording, just made, is currently (March 2022) in post-production and will be scheduled for release in the autumn.
COAL explores the vast colours and possibilities of saxophones by examining and channeling the compounded challenges of the last several years: from a climate crisis to a global pandemic to the possibility of international nuclear war.
This album of saxophone works from Dorone Paris is performed by saxophonist Noam Dorembus. The pieces in the album include Hollow Memory for duo saxophones (performed together with Maayan James), Abyss for solo saxophone and loop and saxophone quartet (performed together with Maayan James, Eli Korman & Kim Kedar). The last piece in the album is All the Roads Are Blocked for solo tenor saxophone and echo.
Dorone Paris is a composer and artist specialising in Installation, Performance Art and Political Composition. Her work has been performed throughout West and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Her international education and practice have gained her a unique approach to Music and Art in general. She also has a long track record of participating and lecturing in conferences, which are reflected by her varied and unusual connections in the New Music world.
Dorone holds a PhD in Music Composition from University College Cork in Ireland. Being raised in Israel influenced her political ideas and affected her musical creativity, aesthetics and philosophy. Her work focuses mainly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and women’s rights. She is the founder of PATH art: an organisation dedicated to convincing her people that a peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians is both possible and necessary. She, together with Sylvia Hinz, is the founder of ArtEquality: a non-profit organisation and an activist movement for equality and feminism that offers support to artists whose work concerns gender equality.
Noam Dorembus is an Israeli saxophonist and creator; he specialises in Classical and Jazz music. Among his performances, Noam has given the Israeli première of Ari Ben-Shabtai’s composition ‘Angel’s Tears’ for saxophone and orchestra, that was conducted by the renowned Mendi Rodan. Noam has also been performing together with harpist Ada Ragimov as part of the Dorembus Ragimov Duo, playing classical repertoire and with his Jazz Trio, playing jazz standards and originals. Noam is part of the Kerem Saxophone Quartet. He also plays with the Revolution Orchestra, The Haifa Symphony Orchestra as well as the Jerusalem East & West orchestra. Noam was a member of the Jerusalem Saxophone Quartet led by Prof. Gersh Geller and a founding member of The Apples, An Israeli based funk, jazz and groove band.
He graduated from The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and is currently teaching in the Conservatoire there.
COAL (MSV 92019)
All Works By Dorone Paris
Abyss
All the Roads are Blocked
Hollow Memory
Performers
All tracks: Noam Dorembus (tenor sax)
Abyss/Hollow Memory: Maayan James (alto sax)
Abyss: Eli Korman (soprano sax); Kim Kedar (baritone sax)
Following the January 2022 release of the critically acclaimed album of his cello and piano music (DDA 25217), Manchester-based British composer Robin Stevens is currently recording a programme of his chamber music for mixed ensembles, entitled Chasing Shadows. The major work on the disc is Robin’s four-movement Clarinet Quintet, featuring Hallé Orchestra clarinettist Rosa Campos. This piece embraces, in a contemporary idiom, all the sweep and ambition of Brahms’ own famous work in the genre.
The remainder of the album demonstrates Robin’s penchant for writing for unusual and neglected combinations of instruments. His Romantic Fantasy for Harp Septet – employing the same forces as Ravel’s ground-breaking Introduction and Allegro – is a powerfully original composition encompassing an unbroken twenty-minute span. The Fantasy Trio for Flute, Cello and Classical Guitar explores the exciting sonic possibilities latent in this felicitous grouping of instruments, and a further dramatic contrast in timbres is provided by two miniatures for double bass and piano.
This project is blessed with a stellar cast of instrumentalists, including guitarist Craig Ogden, harpist Clifford Llantaff (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra), and Hallé Orchestra principals Amy Yule (flute) and Nicholas Trygstad (cello).
Chasing Shadows (DDA 25236)
Composer Robin Stevens
Works
Quintet for Clarinet and Strings Rosa Campos (clarinet); Sophie Rosa & Rosemary Attree (violins) ; Alistair Vennart (viola) ; Nicholas Trygstad (cello)
Fantasy Trio Clifford Llantaff (harp) ; Craig Ogden (guitar); Nicholas Trygstad (cello)
Obsession
Chasing Shadows Alex Jones (Double Bass); David Jones (piano)
Romantic Fantasy Clifford Llantaff (harp); Rosa Campos (clarinet); Amy Yule (flute/piccolo) ; Katie Stillman & Rosemary Attree (violins); Christine Anderson (viola); Nicholas Trygstad (cello)
Sir John Manduell was a pivotal figure in British music, known for his fluent creative thinking, for his own compositions and for his devotion towards the teaching of music.As the founding Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music he led the college into being a world-leading institution, and is regarded as a most vital inspiration and influence on a great many British composers through his leadership and his pioneering work as a producer at the BBC and in his founding of the European Opera Centre. Indeed, Sir John’s outstanding qualities, character and achievements have been well recorded in the many assessments made during his lifetime and in the many tributes that honour his memory.
In 2020 Divine Art released “Songs for Sir John” – a tribute album featuring works by 16 composers in Sir John’s memory – composers who had been influenced, inspired or encouraged by the great mentor – a wonderfully constructed program of chamber music in its own right, cemented by each work’s connection to Sir John Manduell.
The sequel to that album is ‘The Fabulous Sir John’. Recording has taken place between June and October 2021 in Stockport, England, and the album is scheduled for release in July. This recording includes several pieces by Manduell as well as tribute works by Adam Gorb and Michael Berkeley (whose father Lennox was one of Manduell’s teachers), a piece by Sir John’s close friend and admirer Richard Stoker, and one by Sir John’s other teacher, William Alwyn.
Divine Art and Executive Producer John Turner are grateful for the financial support of sponsors Castlefield Investment Partners LLC and the Ida Carroll Trust, and for invaluable contributions to the programme notes from Kent Nagano and Bryan Fox whose words sum up the feeling of so many musicians: “There is no way of adequately describing someone who superbly filled so many roles; any list would exhaust the available space before encompassing its brief. He was unique, and we are all deeply in his debt.”
2022 sees the centenary of the death of the Yorkshire composer William Baines (1899-1922). He wrote in the region of 150 pieces in many genres in his brief and parochial life, but it is the piano with which he is most associated. As Gramophone magazine commented on an earlier album of piano music, “The name William Baines may be unfamiliar to many readers but I would certainly place him among the major figures in English piano music in the early part of this century. The output he produced during his tragically short life – he succumbed to incipient tuberculosis at the age of 23 in 1922 – is truly phenomenal.”
The distinguished English pianist Duncan Honeybourne, long a champion of Baines’ piano music, has put together a programme that includes first recordings of Seven Preludes – Set 2, and Pictures of Light, together with the established works Tides and Paradise Gardens amongst others. Duncan will be joined by the singer Gordon Pullin – whose seven recorded volumes of English Tenor songs sample the entire repertoire of the genre – in the Five Songs of William Baines, written by him within a week in September 1919, and never before publicly recited or recorded.
The disc will include At the Grave of William Baines, a substantial piece for piano written by Robin Walker as a tribute to the composer upon the centenary of Baines’ birth in 1999. The grave is in Horbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, but Baines had lived and died on the same street in York where Robin was brought up a generation or so later.
The recording sessions will take place in Hereford at the end of May 2022 and the album will be scheduled for release by Divine Art Records in the autumn.
Gordon Pullin
Gordon Pullin first sang the songs of William Baines in York, accompanied by Francis Jackson, the Minster organist. They also performed some of them at Nun Appleton Hall, where the piano was one that Baines himself would have played. Gordon Pullin has always specialised in English Song, making a number of CDs for the British Music Society entitled ‘The English Tenor Repertoire’, and giving recitals on the BBC which included songs by Parry, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Ireland, Bax and many others (including Francis Jackson), as well as many first performances. He sang the first two of the Baines songs in the play about the composer, ‘Goodnight to Flamborough’, which was broadcast on the BBC.
Duncan Honeybourne enjoys a diverse profile as a pianist and in music education. Following his concerto debuts at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and the National Concert Hall, Dublin, he made recital debuts in London, Paris and at international festivals in Belgium and Switzerland. Commended by International Piano magazine for his “glittering performances”, Duncan has toured extensively as soloist and chamber musician, broadcasting frequently on BBC Radio 3 and radio networks worldwide. His many recordings reflect his long association with 20th and 21st century British piano music, and he has given over 70 world premieres, including works written for him by John Joubert, John Casken and Cecilia McDowall. For Divine Art, he previously recorded an album of piano music by Luke Whitlock (DDA 25121).
Robin Walker, who is contributing his work to this recording as a tribute to Baines, and is also producing the disc for Divine Art, is an established composer from Yorkshire, deserving also of a wider international audience. His work appears on three Divine Art CDs including one (‘Turning Towards You, DDA 25180) devoted to his chamber music which was chosen as one of his ‘Records of the Year 2019’ by Richard Hanlon of MusicWeb International.
William Baines: piano music and songs (Final Title to be Confirmed)
Label: Divine Art Catalogue Number: DDA 25234
Performers
Gordon Pullin (tenor)* Duncan Honeybourne (piano)
Works
William Baines
Seven Preludes: Set 2 / Pictures of Light / Paradise Gardens / Tides / Silverpoints / The Island of the Fay / The Naïad / Five Songs *
We mark the passing of composer Nigel Butterley. The Australian composer, teacher, broadcaster, and pianist died in February 2022 at the age of 86. Never reaching fame internationally he was however a highly respected figure in Australian musical circles. He has created a vast body of music and also championed the work of other contemporary Australian composers and those of other nationalities, particularly John Cage.
Divine Art is honoured to have two of Butterley’s shorter piano works in the catalog, Arioso and Comment on a Popular Song recorded by Trevor Barnard (‘A Piano Odyssey’, Diversions DDV 24125). The latter work was also included on Barnard’s album of modern Australian music and Bach transcriptions (Divine Art DDA 25005).
Among today’s most gifted pianists, few attract such intense praise and acclamation as Burkard Schliessmann. While not yet perhaps a household name internationally, his concerts and recordings continually receive the most glowing reviews and media attention.
In the last few months alone he has been the subject of special features several times in Fanfare (USA) and International Piano (most recently, a 9-page digital special (2021); and in Pianist UK and Pianist (Germany/Netherlands/Belgium, 2021) and he has garnered a host of awards including three silver medals at the Global Music Awards 2017 and a two Gold Medals as Awards of Excellence in 2018. His Chopin also resulted in Burkard being a finalist in the International Acoustic Music Awards – a fantastic achievement for a classical musician in this pop-driven event. Most recently Burkard was awarded the Goethe Plaque (2019/20) by the City of Frankfurt-am-Main. The Goethe-Plakette is commended to “poets, writers, artists and scientists and other personalities of the cultural life […] who, through their creative work, are worthy of a tribute dedicated to the memory of Goethe.”
Since 2015 Burkard Schliessmann has been recording for Divine Art; following his albums of music by Chopin and Bach, and the recent (September 2021) album ‘From the Heart of the Piano’ which has been incredibly well-received, Divine Art is now to re-issue Schliessmann’s recording of Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, originally released (on physical disc only) by Bayer in 2007.
On its original appearance, this recording was picked as one of MusicWeb International’s Recordings of the Year with comments such as “German pianist Burkard Schliessmann charts new territory in the Goldbergs, characterizing musical phrases like conversations amongst warm, human characters. Far from the flair of young Gould, the serenity of old Gould, the severity of Tureck, or the drama of Perahia, this is the most humane Goldberg I’ve ever heard.” The disc was also included in the Critics’ Choice 2008 by American Record Guide (“Schliessmann’s overall conception and realization of Bach’s last great keyboard work has so much distinction …”).
Scheduled for release in the summer (exact date to be advised) of 2022, this will be a double multi-channel SACD / hybrid stereo CD and will for the first time be available in digital formats including High Definition Dolby Atmos audio and Apple Digital Mastering. High-Definition Audio mastering is taking place in March/April 2022 by Teldex Studios in Berlin, which also produced the original SACD recording in 2007.
Album details:
Label : Divine Art Catalogue number: DDC 25754 Format: Multichannel SACD / Hybrid CD and all major digital formats Artist: Burkard Schliessmann (piano) Album program: J S Bach, Aria with Diverse Variations, BWV 988 (“The Goldberg Variations”) Release date to be announced – between July and September 2022 Original recording 2007 – HD remastering 2022
![Don't miss Ryan de Ryke and Daniel Schlosberg's recording of “Looking to Euridice” from Doug Lofstrom's song cycle, “Myths and Accidents” in @Deezer's top Classical New Release picks playlist! [in bio]](https://scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/548897030_18290642122283342_3529111172261449990_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=sdvbSsdrBa8Q7kNvwFvW8XT&_nc_oc=AdlcSm50vuBWlaN5-A6l6Ukcb9_PHPEfvYwV9x1hz03acu_CFqWO9I6Otbkbsf32ggY&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=rfil-lrTMdYPFLSko4SHUA&oh=00_AfZF8mJ_A2a12z9_1VpDP2a4IFmWPYvSz1dx0EXAJ4F2tQ&oe=68D8D994)
