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Archive for News – Page 9

Métier Records to release fashion-opera, ROBE, by Alastair White

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

20 May, 2020

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?

About

Alastair White © Alastair White

“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.

RECORDED IN JANUARY 2020.

ROBE Synopsis (duration c. 80 minutes)

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…

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Tags : Alastair White, Coming Soon, Metier, opera

Divine Art to Release Album in Tribute to Sir John Manduell

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

13 May, 2020

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, 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

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Tags : Sir John Manduell, Songs for Sir John

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

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Tags : David Gorton, Messiaen, Roderick Chadwick

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)

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Tags : Edward Cowie

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

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

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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

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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.

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.

Coming Soon News

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

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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

Women composers playlist

Posted by Divine Art Recording Group on

27 November, 2019

We now have several playlists on Spotify devoted to composers/instruments/genres and our latest includes music by our women composers (over 60 of them) – most contemporary. Amazing creativity – click ‘read more’ to access the playlist link:

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Customer discounts

Posted by Divine Art Recording Group on

26 November, 2019

Just a reminder that subscribers to our newsletter get a discount voucher which can be used for any non-sale purchase of CD or digital album from the online store. In 2020 this will be replaced by new offers and opportunities. Meanwhile sign up for 15% off…..

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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.

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See All of Chris Gekker’s Divine Art Recordings

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See All of Ian Mitchell’s Divine Art Recordings

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Tags : Award, Chris Gekker, Ghost Dialogues, Ian Mitchell, Métier, The American Prize

Métier Announces Kevin Raftery’s “Second Child”

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

25 September, 2019

Divine Art’s leading new-music label, Métier, has announced the second album of works by British composer Kevin Raftery, which is being recorded over the next few months and is scheduled for release in Autumn of 2020. Raftery sees his albums as progeny, created after a long gestation process so has titled this new collection ‘Second Child’. While much of Raftery’s music is ‘serious’ he also has a fine knack for writing works of wit and humor.

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Raftery’s Chamber Music (Métier MSV 28569, issued in may 2017) met with unanimous positive reviews. Second Child broadens the picture adding choral and piano works alongside chamber music.

String Quartet No. 2, subtitled “Serioso”, develops ideas from Beethoven’s intense opus 95 quartet. Atlantis Dances for mixed quintet also touches upon deep feelings in its central “Mourning Dance”, albeit framed by more jubilant dances – the whole suite being second child to the earlier work First Companion.

Between these we hear a thoughtfully crafted program. Cook From Frozen is a journey for piano. Choral works Dimitte nobis and Three English Poems frame a meditation for two muted violins, Musica Fermata.

Raftery is blessed by co-operations with performers of the highest level: the Marmen Quartet, the Berkeley Ensemble, Clare Hammond, and Polyphony led by Stephen Layton.

Kevin Raftery was born in St.Louis, Missouri, in 1951 and studied composition with Peter Racine Fricker at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 1989 he moved to London where he studied with Justin

Connolly and maintained a dual career as musician and project manager.

He sings contemporary music with the New London Chamber Choir, plays bassoon in several ensembles, and is Music Director of the 500-member Richmond Concert Society.

For journalists in the UK who would be interested in attending sessions (the composer/artists are eager to offer interview opportunities), the Marmen Quartet will be recording on 29 November this year, and Polyphony on June 25-26 next year. These are world-class performers and the composer believes anyone would be thrilled to see them in action. If any journalist wishes to arrange attendance they may obtain venue details etc from Divine Art.

Album Details

“Second Child” – music by Kevin Raftery

Métier MSV 28600 for release in autumn 2020

Tracks and artists:

String Quartet No. 2 (“Serioso”) – Marmen Quartet
Cook from Frozen – Clare Hammond (piano solo)
Dimitte nobis – Polyphony, dir. Stephen Layton
Musica Fermata – Members of Berkeley Ensemble (two violins)
Three English Poems – Polyphony, dir. Stephen Layton
Atlantis Dances – Berkeley Ensemble (bass clarinet, horn, viola, cello, double bass)

Coming Soon News

Tags : Kevin Raftery, Métier, Second Child

The Roaring Whirl - Composer and Performers at the Launch Event (high res) 18.09.19

Everyone’s talking about The Roaring Whirl!

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

25 September, 2019

After Sarah Rodgers’s The Roaring Whirl launch event, everyone’s talking about this exciting cross-cultural release!

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Planet Hugill

The work gives a number of ways in for people. It tells the Kim story, the relationship between Kim and the Lama which is essentially a journey, and about friendship. Sarah finds Kipling’s book interesting because there is so little jingoism in it, it does not feel as Colonial as many of his other works. The Roaring Whirl is in seven sections, the titles of which come from the novel. Six of these sections are narratives, each an accompanied reading followed by a musical interpretation, and the central movement is purely instrumental.
Sarah’s music very much combines Western classical music with Indian classical and Sarah found it a lovely project, giving her the luxury of investigating the conventions of Indian music. Each section uses a different raga (implying a musical scale) and tala (implying rhythm), and Sarah points out that the different ragas have different qualities which affect the way they should be used.
—Robert Hugill

Read Robert Hugill’s feature on The Roaring Whirl on PlanetHugill.com

Jonathan Fryer

“Cross-cultural works are more common today than they were nearly three decades ago, but this is an original and genuinely exquisite piece that deserves widespread exposure.”

See the feature (and some great photos) on JonathanFryer.wordpress.com

Eastern Eye

“At the exclusive launch last Wednesday (18), Patel, Allen and Shrivastav played three extracts from the CD for an audience in central London.
Speaking to Eastern Eye before the performance, Patel admitted he never expected that the album would ever be released.
“In the beginning, I thought it was a piece which would carry on year after year,” he said. “We did a couple of shows, but then I didn’t hear anything, and it fizzled out. When I got the call to say that it was being relaunched, I knew I had to make this happen.”
Composer Rodgers agreed that it was “fantastic” to finally have the album launched so many years after it was initially created.
“It was cut off in its prime and didn’t get the exposure and the performances it should have had,” she told Eastern Eye. “I’m truly thrilled that we have been able to launch it today.”
Described as a “revelation of west meets east,” the album is set in Punjab, north India. As British Asian culture has become more mainstream in the UK, Patel believes this is a perfect time to revive the album.
“Some may think (the time) has gone now, but I don’t think it has,” he said. “If you look at Asian music and dance in the UK, we are more vibrant now than ever before.”
—Lauren Codling

Read the features and interviews at EasternEye.biz

The Roaring Whirl – Composer and Performers at Dress Rehearsal for Launch Event 18.09.19
The Roaring Whirl – Geraldine Allen
The Roaring Whirl – Composer and Performers with Others at Launch Event 18.09.19
The Roaring Whirl Composer and Performers at the Launch Event

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Tags : Baluji Shrivastav, Bhasker Patel, Geraldine Allen, Sarah Rodgers, The Roaring Whirl

London Myriad “Four” Launch Event!

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on

9 September, 2019

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On 8 October, 2019, London Myriad will launch their new Métier release, “Four”, at 1901 Arts Club in London with performances of excerpts from the recording before its 11 October release!

FOUR is a recording which champions music for wind quartet and includes the world premiere recording of French female composer Claude Arrieu’s Suite en Quatre written in 1979. Taken from the existent repertoire for wind quartet, the recording includes works by twentieth century French and British composers Claude Arrieu, Jean Françaix, Eugène Bozza, Jacques Ibert, Frank Bridge and Richard Rodney Bennett.

Enjoy your evening at the 1901 Arts Club with a glass of Prosecco on arrival in the lounge. Doors open at 6.30pm and London Myriad will perform in the 1901 Salon at 7.30pm. Feel free to stay for further socialising with the quartet and friends after the performance.