High Romantic piano works and transcriptions make up the latest album from Turkish-American pianist Zeynep Ucbasaran, to be released early in 2021 by Divine Art Records. The year 1847 saw Franz Liszt arrive in Istanbul (then still called Constantinople) to spend six weeks in the Ottoman capital. Liszt created much interest with the public and in the Sultan of the Ottoman Court, Abdul Medjid, for whom he performed twice. The Erard company shipped over ‘ a beautiful piano with seven octaves’ for Liszt to play. One of the pieces that Liszt played in the Court was his brilliant paraphrase on a march by Giuseppe Donizetti for the Sultan. Donizetti was the Sultan’s Chef d’Orchestre and the brother of the more famous Gaetano.
Zeynep Ucbasaran celebrates this creative time in her home country’s capital with a program of Liszt works and pieces by Chopin and Weber, which Liszt performed during his visit. The pianist, who now lives and works in California, is making her debut solo album for Divine Art, having featured in both duos and trios recently: with Sergio Gallo in another program of mainly mainstream works (“Liszt to Milhaud”, Divine Art DDA 25208) and with Gallo and Miguel Chavaldas in “The Three-Piano Project” on Divine Art DDA 25207.
LISZT IN ISTANBUL (DDA 25213)
Franz Liszt :
Magyar Dalok (Hungarian Melodies), S. 242
Introduction et Polonaise de l’opéra I Puritani de Bellini, S. 391
Réminiscences de Lucia de Lammermoor de Donizetti, S. 397
Grande Paraphrase de la Marche de Giuseppe Donizetti, composé pour sa Majesté le Sultan Abdul Medjid-Khan, S. 403
Over the past few years, Divine Art Records and its new-music imprint Métier have developed an ongoing series of albums of music by composers from the Irish Republic, to quite considerable critical acclaim. The latest addition to this collection will be the first album celebrating the choral music of Rhona Clarke, a Dublin based composer who has created a wide range of work in which choral and vocal music play a significant part. The programme spans a period of almost thirty years from A Song for St Cecilia’s Day (1993) to the four-movement Requiem (2020), written during ‘lockdown’ due to the Covid pandemic; a work which is compact and does not follow the full traditional setting of Requiem Mass texts. The texts range from Catullus (c.55 BC) and anonymous medieval lyrics to the late Irish poet, writer and pugilist Ulick O’Connor. Besides the Requiem, there are a number of other settings of Christian sacred texts: O Vis Aeternatis (Hildegard), Veni Creator, Two Marian Anthems and Rorate Caeli, but also lyrics which look at death from very different perspectives: Ave Atque Vale, Catullus outpouring of grief on his brother’s death and the humorous children’s rhyme with its depiction of worms crawling in The Old Woman.
All of the works are composed for mixed a capella choir and vary in levels of complexity: some were commissioned by professional and others by amateur choirs. ‘Pie Jesu’ and DoNot Stand by my Grave are straightforward homophonic pieces each involving a solo soprano; ‘Lux Aeterna’ and Veni Creator are more dissonant, and more complex texturally while other works use extended techniques such as stamping, clapping and long glissandi.
Every piece seeks to define a mood, with plenty of contrast here from the joyous salute to ‘Musick’ in A Song for St Cecilia’s Day and the reverential O Vis Aeternitatis to the poignancy in the Introit of Requiem. On this recording, all performances are by the superlative, internationally acclaimed State Choir Latvija directed by Maris Sirmais. The recording is due to take place in Riga at St John’s Church from 5-9 July 2021 and should be released by Autumn 2021. Rhona Clarke is celebrated for her eclectic and varied approach which produces fascinating and often surprising work, from her fresh but relatively conservative Piano Trios to the incredible, avant-garde, Sprechstimme-with-rock-percussion piece “…smiling like that…” all available on Métier recordings.
‘Sempiternam’ Choral music by Rhona Clarke (MSV 28614)
Composer: Rhona Clarke (b.1958) Artists: Latvia State Choir, conducted by Maris Sirmais
We were sad to learn of the passing of British composer Justin Connolly who died on September 29. Justin was born in 1933 and studied composition and conducting with Peter Racine Fricker at the Royal College of Music, earning prizes in both categories. His early music was very much influenced by serialism but was all withdrawn. He found his own voice after three years at Yale where he began his teaching career, later teaching back in England and the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy as well as being visiting lecturer in composition at the Universities of Melbourne and California (Santa Barbara). He was also a conspicuous figure at Dartington and Tanglewood. During the 1990s he produced a steady stream of works characterized by a strong and sensitive word setting technique in his vocal works, and powerful melodic phrasing within complex forms culminating in the masterpiece Scardanelli Dreams.
Lately, Connolly has been rather neglected due to the youth culture within some new music circles but his music remains testimony to a very individual and inspired composer. Scardanelli Dreams and other works were recorded for his Métier album ‘Night Thoughts’ (MSVCD92046).
Métier is the new-music label of the Divine Art Recordings Group, based in Vermont, USA, and in the UK. Its recent albums of new string quartets by English composers Robin Stevens and Edward Cowie has helped to kindle a new interest in the contemporary work in this genre and February will see the release of a new recording by the Amernet String Quartet of String Quartets 1-3 by Cuban composer Orlando Jacinto García, who has lived in the USA since 1961.
The three quartets presented here express in a variety of ways the overarching nature of García’s writing, originating in part from his association with Morton Feldman. In the pop world, perhaps ‘ambient’ would be the tag applied but would do a disservice to the complexity and depth of García’s writing; this is not music that clashes and bangs but invites one to float in the suspended, elongated tones which shimmer and evolve; using pauses, contrasts between dissonance and consonance, repeated rhythmical patterns, García creates a meditative soundworld where time is barely relevant.
Through more than 200 works composed for a wide range of performance genres including interdisciplinary, site specific, and works with and without electronics for orchestra, choir, soloists, and a variety of chamber ensembles, Orlando Jacinto García has established himself as an important figure in the new music world. The distinctive character of his music has often been described as “time suspended- haunting sonic explorations”: qualities he developed from his studies with Morton Feldman among others. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1954, García migrated to the United States in 1961. In demand as a guest composer, he is the recipient of numerous honours and awards from a variety of organisations and cultural institutions including the Rockefeller, Fulbright, Knight, Dutka, Civitella Ranieri, Bogliasco, and Cintas Foundations, the State of Florida, the MacDowell and Millay Colony, and the Ariel, Noise International, Matiz Rangel, Nuevas Resonancias, Salvatore Martirano, and Bloch International Competitions. Most recently he has been the recipient of 4 Latin Grammy nominations in the best Contemporary Classical Composition Category (2009-11, 2015). With performances around the world at important venues by distinguished performers, his works are recorded on New Albion, O.O. Discs, CRI /New World, Albany, North/South, CRS, Rugginenti, VDM, Capstone, Innova, CNMAS, Opus One, Telos, and Toccata Classics. García is the founder and director of the NODUS Ensemble, the Miami Chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music, the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, and is a resident composer for the Miami Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated educator, he is Professor of Music, Distinguished University Professor, and Composer in Residence for the School of Music at Florida International University.
The Amernet String Quartet is currently Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University; it is one of the most acclaimed ensembles of its generation and has been praised for its intelligence, expressivity, ravishing sound, and commitment to both new music and the classics since its inception. Its members are Misha Vitenson and Avi Nagin, violins; Michael Klotz, viola and Jason Calloway, cello.
Ed Hughes and his work, “Cuckmere: A Portrait”, from his album, Time, Space & Change, was featured on BBC South East Today as it has been integrated into a new app called Echoes: Interactive Sound Walks. So the next time you’re visiting the Cuckmere Valley and Haven in East Sussex, you can listen to the work while you explore the footpaths down the river to the sea. The app uses GPS to trigger eight extracts from the score, giving you an immersive audio journey from the depths of winter to high summer while you walk! Watch the clip here:
Divine Art Recordings are preparing an album of keyboard works by J.S. Bach, played by English pianist Jill Crossland, which will be officially released on January 8, 2021 though available direct from Divine Art as CD or digital download from mid-December. The recording was originally issued in 2003, on the Calico Classics label which was devoted to recordings by Crossland and distributed by Divine Art; it is now being transferred to the main lower-price Diversionsimprint.
Jill Crossland studied with Ryszard Bakst in Manchester and with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna. Her repertoire is firmly rooted in the baroque and classical periods, with a particular focus on Johann Sebastian Bach. Her style has been described as ‘intimately scaled and sensitively nuanced’ (Gramophone). Since 2006 her recordings have appeared on both Divine Art and Signum.
Jill Crossland: Bach Keyboard Works (played on modern piano)
Following the exceptionally fine response from customers and critics to recent albums of music by Edward Cowie, Divine Art’s Métier label is now planning the release early next year of a new recording of chamber works concentrated on the guitar. ‘Stream and Variations’ includes music for solo guitar, two guitars, woodwind/guitar and one major work for two violins.
Composer Edward Cowie introduces this new project:
“It was the late and great Julian Bream, who – through a brand-new commission for a major work from me for solo guitar – reconnected me with this extraordinary if somewhat daunting instrument. It took me two years to compose Stream and Variations – and working with the magnificent soloist, Saki Kato for over a year before the astonishing premiere in the Wigmore Hall, London, in November 2019. I quickly moved on to write a series of short duos for two guitars based on 8 Haiku by Basho, performed by the Miyabi Guitar Duo, Saki Kato and Hugh Millington.
Right then, I knew I wanted a new album mainly devoted to the guitar but twice pairing it with very striking and interesting partners, namely in this case the fabulous baroque flautist and close friend, Stephen Preston and the mercurial and brilliant bass clarinetist, Ron Woodley. An incredible palette of sonic marvels then, with works that conjure with the movement of a Dorset Stream; the often solemn yet mystic brevity of a Japanese poet’s Meditations on the seasons; incantations of Shakespearean ‘spells’ with essences from wild British flowers, and a set of audio-translations from 5 staggeringly wondrous paintings by my wife and best friend Heather Cowie. An extra and I think precious and unique 21 minutes is given to a huge and intricate duo for two violins based on an 8-part time line in Particle Physics, my Particle Partita played by two performing geniuses and also close friends, Peter Sheppard Skærved and Mihailo Trandafilovski.
This is, I hope a heady as well as sensual mix! No composer could dream of a better team of musicians to realise music like this.”
The new album is to be recorded at Silverdale Parish Church, Lancashire, England on October 15/16 and December 10, 2020, with expert engineer Paul Baily (apart from the violin duo which is already recorded).
Stream and Variations (MSV 28612)
Stream and Variations (Saki Kato, guitar)
Basho Meditations (Myabi Duo – Saki Kato and Hugh Millington, guitars)
Particle Partita (Peter Sheppard Skærved and Mihailo Trandafilovski, violins)
Spell Checks (Stephen Preston, baroque flute, and Saki Kato, guitar)
HJ In Colour (Ronald Woodley, bass clarinet, and Saki Kato, guitar)
Presto Classical interviews Peter Sheppard Skærved on three of his latest recordings across the Divine Art Recordings Group family of labels:
Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved has championed contemporary and lesser-known music for much of his career; recently a triple-bill of albums came out that underscored this interest.
In the first, Skaerved explores the Klagenfurt Manuscript, a collection of anonymous Baroque solo works uncovered in a convent; the second sees him reinvent some neglected Schubert by re-presenting it in a way more suited to its “chamber-like” nature; and the third brings us right up to the present day with works from the contemporary composer Edward Cowie (b.1943).
Such an eclectic spread of recordings was a fascinating prospect, so I spoke to Peter about all of them!
Divine Art Records is delighted to announce the signing of Canadian ensemble Trio de l’Île for its debut album with a mix of Argentinian and Armenian music. The CD will include Astor Piazzolla’s Four seasons, Gayané Chebotaryan’s Trio and Arno Babadjanian’s monumental Piano Trio, generally regarded as a masterpiece of the genre.
The album focuses on the fusion of different styles bringing forth colorful mosaics. On the one hand, Piazzolla revolutionized the Tango by blending it with jazz and traditional classical music – hence giving light to the Nuevo Tango; while Chebotaryan and Babadjanian harmoniously combine Armenian folk music with the Russian classical tradition.
With three established and classically trained musicians, Trio de l’Île (violinist Uliana Drugova, cellist Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy and pianist Patil Harboyan) is a Québe- based piano trio that advocates proximity with its audience and is known for its passionate and rigorous interpretations. Pianist Patil Harboyan has a previous successful album with Divine Art, of Armenian music for Cello and piano (with cellist Heather Tuach – DDA 25075)
The new album is scheduled for release in November 2020.
Piano Trios from Armenia and Argentina (DDA 25211)
Works :
Arno Babadjanian : Piano Trio in F sharp minor
Gayané Chebotaryan: Piano Trio
Astor Piazzolla: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)
‘THE SEGOVIA LEGACY’ TO BE RECORDED BY BRITISH GUITARIST RAYMOND BURLEY
The latest signing to the Divine Art label is acclaimed British guitarist Raymond Burley who is to record a new album in homage to the great Andrés Segovia.
‘The Segovia Legacy’ is a programme of works written for and recorded by the great Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), it also includes one piece composed by him. The recording features just a small portion of Segovia’s huge legacy but offers a very wide variety of musical styles.
Photo: Raymond Burley/Divine Art
Raymond Burley is one of Britain’s most experienced guitarists. As a soloist he has toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe, North and South America and the Far East, performed and recorded with many of England’s finest orchestras and appeared many times at London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre and Symphony Hall in Birmingham.
Raymond has given premieres of works by composers that include Stephen Dodgson, Bernard Stevens, Reginald Smith Brindle, Gilbert Biberian, Christopher Wright, John Duarte and James Patten. He has also worked in duo with guitarists Alice Artzt, John Mills, Clive Carroll, Gilbert Biberian, Giorgio Mirto, Gordon Giltrap, John Etheridge and John Feeley. Other partners include actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft, harpsichordist Gilbert Rowland, violinist Emanuel Salvador and keyboard player Rick Wakeman.
Raymond has directed masterclasses and guitar festivals in the UK, Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Washington DC, New York, Princeton, Kowloon, Dublin, Bonn, Bremen and Lima. He also has numerous recordings and publications to his credit.
The album is to be recorded in early January 2021, and is likely to be released in the late spring of next year.
The Segovia Legacy (DDA 25212)
Program:
Moreno Torroba: Eight ‘Castles of Spain’
Roussel: Segovia, op.29
Ponce: 20 Variations on “Folia de España” and Fugue
Divine Art’s Métier Records label will soon be releasing an album comprising a unique collaboration of leading voices in poetry, drama, and contemporary music from Ireland. Choral works performed by Laetare Vocal Ensemble are interspersed with evocative and intense readings from the poetry of Paula Meehan, the plays of Marina Carr, and the bilingual collections of Dairena Ní Chinnéide, exploring the otherworldly, the liminal, the mysterious, the haunted, and the interaction of the real and the imagined. The poetry of radical Irish-American poet Lola Ridge (1873–1941) is revived through sensitive readings by well-known Irish radio voice Carl Corcoran, while the ethereal vocals and harp improvisations of Síle Denvir add depth and dimension in this innovative and immersive listening experience. This new recording emphasises Divine Art’s strong connection to the musicians of Dublin following several recent releases of choral, vocal and chamber music, to be followed by a full album of choral works by Rhona Clarke next year.
Laetare Vocal Ensemble (pictured at top photo by Lorcan Doherty) is an award-winning chamber choir from Dublin, Ireland, directed by Róisín Blunnie. Previous releases include In Circling Flight: Contemporary Choral Music by John Buckley, Rhona Clarke, and Seán Doherty.
Playwright Marina Carr won the Windham-Campbell Prize in 2017. Her plays have been translated into many languages and are produced around the world.
Paula Meehan is a former Ireland Professor of Poetry. Her work includes collaborations with dancers, visual artists, film-makers, and musicians.
Síle Denvir is a harpist and Irish traditional singer from the Irish-speaking area of Connemara in the west of Ireland. She lectures and researches at Dublin City University.
Carl Corcoran is a musician and arts professional. He was formerly presenter and curator of the critically acclaimed Blue of the Nighton RTÉ Lyric FM, Ireland’s national classical music and arts radio station.
GHOST SONGS: Contemporary Music and Words from Ireland (MSV 28599)
Release date – to be confirmed by early 2021
Recorded in April-December 2019 and January 2020
Tracks include the following choral works:
The Destroyer (Seán Doherty)
The Old Woman (Rhona Clarke)
It’s Strange About Stars (Seán Doherty)
The Threat of the Dead (Michael Holohan)
The Ghost Song (Seán Doherty)
Under-Song (Seán Doherty)
The Graves of Arbour Hill (Seán Doherty)
Do Not Stand at my Grave (Rhona Clarke)
The Salley Gardens (trad., arr. Seán Doherty)
And poems (including some of the texts of the above settings) read by Carl Corcoran and the authors: Paula Meehan, Marina Carr, Dairena Ní Chinnéide.
Album Cover features “All These Others” by Marie Hanlon
Divine Art Recordings will soon be releasing an album featuring the first ever recordings of Sam Hayden’s complete music for solo piano, performed by well-known contemporary music specialist Ian Pace. The album includes the monumental virtuosic 7-movement cycle Becomings, the most recent work from which the album takes its name, and some earlier shorter works reflecting diverse modernist and experimentalist influences. Although Hayden’s output for solo piano spans three decades, he has tended to use the instrument much more often in ensemble, chamber or electronic music contexts, often focusing on the percussive and resonance characteristics of the piano. During the fewer occasions when he has engaged with the piano as a solo acoustic instrument, the medium is always pushed to its sonic, spatial and physical limits. These solo pieces have in common constant transformation, existing at the extremes of gesture, polyphony, density, register, dynamics and textual juxtaposition.
Sam Hayden is a composer whose work contains much diversity and variety in its modernism; he teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, and Pianist Ian Pace is one of the UK’s primary exponents of contemporary music as well as being head of music at City, University of London. His previous recordings for Metier over several years include highly praised albums of music by Michael Finnissy including the gigantic 5-CD long History of Photography in Sound.
The new Hayden album “Becomings” is scheduled for release in November.
“Becomings” – piano music by Sam Hayden (MSV 28611)
All World Premiere Recordings
Becomings (Das Werden), nos 1-7
…still time…
Fragment (After Losses)
Recorded at City University London in April and May 2020
Métier Records to release new recording of piano music from Iran by composers Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour and Hormoz Farhat, performed by Mary Dullea
Divine Art Recordings is honoured and delighted to announce a new recording of piano music by two foremost Iranian composers, of two generations, to be released in winter 2020-21 on the Métier new music imprint. The recording has been engineered and produced by top-ranked expert Adaq Khan in London.
Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour was born in 1974 and specialises in music which reaches across boundaries of geography and politics – and also time. He studied in Denmark and England and has enjoyed international success with recordings on Métier and Naxos. He wrote the first ever Harp Concerto by an Iranian composer on a commission from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His opera The Doll Behind the Curtain – the first Iranian opera with an English libretto – was premiered in London in 2015. Some of his works for string ensemble were recorded along with works by Fozieh Majd on the album ‘In Absentia’: Metier MSV 28576 (2019)
Hormoz Farhat
Hormoz Farhat is perhaps the most senior of Iranian composers of ‘international’ art music. He was born in 1930, became a student of Darius Milhaud, and was the first Iranian to write a formal piano sonata.
The works here are performed by Irish pianist Mary Dullea, a formidable virtuoso dedicated to contemporary works whose skill and ability to realise aleatory and avant garde works is astonishing. She is pianist with the world-acclaimed Fidelio Trio which has performed in many countries and has made recordings with several leading labels including Delphian, Atarus and NMC as well as Métier; as a soloist she has performed throughout Ireland, England, Europe, USA, Hong Kong and South Africa. She has recorded for Métier music by Michael Finnissy, Eric Craven and Paul Whitty as well as a collection of new Irish works by Benjamin Dwyer, David Fennessy, Ed Bennett, Frank Lyons, Gráinne Mulvey, Jonathan Nagle and John McLachlan. She has just completed a recording of Craven’s ‘Pieces for Pianists’ (2 CDs) which will appear early in 2021.
Piano music from Iran (working title) Métier MSV 28610
Originally scheduled as part of the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on 16 August 2020, Peter Seivewright will now be performing his Piano Music from the United States of America programme as an independent recital at St. Mark’s Unitarian Church, Edinburgh. The programme will include Edward MacDowell’s Piano Sonata No. 2 (‘Eroica’) which will be recorded on a future installment of his American Piano Sonatas recordings on Divine Art! On 3 August, Peter will also be live streaming a DVD recording he made of Charles Ives’s “Concord” Sonata from The Byre Recording Studio in Inverness, Scotland.
A posthuman fantasia about cities, virtual reality and the A.I. singularity: ROBE is an award-nominated opera inspired by fashion and machines. This new (world premiere) recording will be released by Métier Records in late 2020/early 2021. (MÉTIER MSV 28609). An audio recording which will be available on CD and Hi-Res digital download and streaming, it will be supported by promotional video shorts – the label hopes for a full staged video version in the future. An opera in form, it is also beautifully choreographed and is visually stunning.
Story
Descending into the mind of the superintelligence EDINBURGH, a young cartographer is tasked with mapping this creature so as to grant its desire: to become a living city, teeming with human life and activity. But they grow close, and she weaves into the map those things that cannot be known or spoken: the hidden histories of joy and longing each privately our own. As these rifts in the structure undo causality itself, she must answer the question: what exactly has she created?
“Music is an ancient, powerful technology,” says composer-librettist Alastair White. “In ROBE we’re trying to explore the idea that virtual reality has existed since the dawn of time: in the way that books, theatres – even the clothes we wear – transform and augment our perception of the world. And, how music has this astonishing power to contain and combine its participants – audiences, performers, writers – into a type of artificial superintelligence. “
This first full studio recording features the original cast from the 2019 UU Studios production at Tête-à-Tête festival, where the opera was shortlisted for a Creative Edinburgh Award and won praise for the ways in which it “successfully evoked the strange abstract world of cyberspace, creating a real sense of non-reality…The performances from all concerned were excellent.” (Planet Hugill).
People
Alastair White is a Scottish composer and writer whose work is characterised by a lyrical complexity that draws influence from materialism, fashion, cosmology and computers. Previous work includes 2018’s WEAR, shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music: “an opera of rare imagination and success” (Mark Berry, Boulezian). Produced at Goldsmiths Music Studios by Henri Växby (French For Cartridge), this release features a cast of rising stars from the new music scene: virtuosic pianist and music director Ben Smith (ROH, Wigmore Hall, Barbican), experimental flautist Jenni Hogan (Barbican, Radio 3, Queen Elizabeth Hall), Clara Kanter (Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, BBC), the “theatrically and vocally excellent” (Opera Magazine) Kelly Poukens, “staggeringly good” (New Statesman) Rosie Middleton and Sarah Parkin, described as “a joy to watch” (The Times).
This recording has been supported by Help Musicians UK, the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Goldsmiths Graduate Fund and Music Research Committee.
In a society where difference between the real and the virtual is no longer meaningful, a powerful new being threatens the stability which holds these worlds together. Two elders, Neachneohain and Beira, convince the young cartographer Rowan to complete a terrible task: descend into the mind of the superintelligence EDINBURGH and map this creature so as to grant its desire – to become a living city, teeming with human life and activity. Witnessing visions of the awful realness of life beyond cyberspace, Rowan agrees – plunging into its depths: a strange, abstractworld of data and dream.
30 years later, Rowan and EDINBURGH have fallen in love, have lived their lives together. Though every morning she awakes with no memory of the past, Rowan has almost completed the map that EDINBURGH desires. But into this map Rowan has woven something else: something hidden, silent, unsaid. As these rifts in the structure undo causality itself, she must answer the question: what exactly has she created? And what does it have to do with this strange, otherworldly figure who sings the red song of a forgotten city – of an ancient, poisoned ROBE…
Songs for Sir John: Works by composers including Robin Stevens, Martin Bussey, Sally Beamish, David Matthews, Peter Dickinson, Lennox Berkeley, Robin Walker and many more
Divine Art Records is honoured to announce a new album for release later this year in tribute to one of Britain’s most influential figures in recent musical history – and yet one whose name is shamefully little known outside the music profession.
Sir John Manduell
Sir John Manduell, who died in 2017, was a consummate musician in many ways and held many posts of importance from being Director of Music at Lancaster University, to senior producing roles at BBC Radio 3, eventually (as composition was closest to his heart) taking up the post of Head of Composition and Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Indeed he was the founder of the college, incorporating the Royal Manchester College of Music and the Northern School of Music, thus building the foundation of what is now one of the UK’s most dynamic centres for ‘serious’ music. He was also the founder of the European Opera Centre.
Sir John’s own works are masterful and embody the best of the modern tonal tradition alongside composers such as William Alwyn and Lennox Berkeley (both of whom were his teachers), and most remain to be discovered by the worldwide audience. Two major orchestral works (the Double Concerto for Oboe and Cor Anglais, and the Flutes Concerto for flutes and harp) were recorded alongside works by Gordon Crosse for the album “Mixed Doubles” (Métier MSV 77201) released by Divine Art in 2013.
The new album is titled ‘Songs for Sir John’. Curated by Sir John’s erstwhile colleague and close friend John Turner, it is a garland of tributes by several composers, who have in some way found their professional careers guided and encouraged by the enthusiasm and ever-generous support of Sir John. Most of the pieces were originally composed for concerts celebrating Sir John’s life in 2018 and 2019 and are focused around the evocative poetry of William Butler Yeats. One set (works by Robin Walker) was recorded for a previous album and features as narrator the mellifluous voice of the late TV presenter and newsreader Richard Baker.
‘Songs for Sir John’ will be released on September 11, 2020.
Songs for Sir John (DDA 25210)
Works:
Men Improve with the Years (Robin Stevens) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Sonnet (Elis Pehkonen) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
The Cold Heaven (Martin Bussey) for soprano, recorder, violin and cello *
Reflection (Geoffrey Poole) for soprano, bass recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Yeats Interlude (Sally Beamish) for recorder, oboe, violin and cello
Be Still (Michael Ball) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Those Images (David Horne) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Two Yeats Songs, Op. 23b (David Matthews) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Zuzu’s Petals (Kevin Malone) for recorder, oboe, violin and cello
This Great Purple Butterfly (Gary Carpenter) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Strings in the Earth and Air (Peter Dickinson) for soprano, recorder, violin and cello (text by James Joyce)
Three Duets (Lennox Berkeley) for two recorders
Four Nursery Rhymes (Robin Walker) for narrator, recorder and piano (texts by Thomas Pitfield)
The Cat and the Moon (Jeremy Pike) for soprano, recorder, oboe, violin and cello *
Into the Twilight (Nicholas Marshall) for soprano, tenor recorder, viola and cello *
The Cloths of Heaven (Naji Hakim) for soprano, recorder, oboe, viola and cello *
* Indicates setting of a Yeats poem
Artists
Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano)
Richard Baker (narrator)
John Turner (recorder)
Laura Robinson (recorder)
Richard Simpson (oboe)
Benedict Holland (violin
Susie Mészáros (viola)
Nicholas Trygstad (cello)
Keith Swallow (piano)
Apart from the Walker work (2005), the album was recorded on 18 and 19 December 2019 at St Paul’s Church, Stockport.
Producer: Paul Hindmarsh. Engineer: Philip Hardman
We were saddened by the news of the passing of composer Gerard Schurmann on March 24, at the age of 96. Born in what is now Indonesia, he moved at the age of 17 to England where he served in the RAF, worked in the diplomatic service and began his long composing and conducting career. Introduced to the world of film by his close friend Alan Rawsthorne, he achieved success as a movie-score composer but also produced orchestral and chamber works of great quality. He moved to Los Angeles in 1981. Schurmann contributed his touching short piece ‘Memento’ for Divine Art’s album ‘A Garland for John McCabe’ (DDA 25166)
1847: Liszt in IstanbulPrice range: £8.99 through £12.50
The 3-Piano ProjectProduct on salePrice range: £8.99 through £14.99
![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=sdvbSsdrBa8Q7kNvwG1gAkl&_nc_oc=Adn4OzG-tL5KyzGmAR65OvpwRd0CAd9YHAWq0b-Ys5FvGc7InEgRkfgHhtRbwe2vGow&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=rv7ZJuknDZQsye8UKnxQrQ&oh=00_AfZ9ZxT6FoA2-pnindJLiMqnhpcKvKadpHP5J7AdqKgPlQ&oe=68D7F894)
