Divine Art signs Invencia Piano Duo for “Poetic and Religious Harmonies for Two”

The critically acclaimed Invencia Piano Duo have joined Divine Art and their first album for the label will be scheduled for release in the first half of 2025. The album is titled ‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies for Two’ – with reference to Liszt’s ‘Poetic and Religious Harmonies’.

The new album aims at enriching the piano duo/duet repertoire by arranging solo pieces that simply require more than two hands to play, whether it be Totentanz by Liszt, La valse by Ravel, Vers la flamme by Scriabin or Triana by Albéniz. These works have been arranged for four hands by composer/pianist Andrey Kasparov and premiered by the award-winning Invencia Piano Duo, founded by Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn.

Additionally, there are two new works by Andrey Kasparov:  Fantasy on Lutheran Chorales for piano duet and Cadenza for LvB for piano duo.  All the works and arrangements on this recording take full advantage of the possibilities both duet and duo provide.

The Invencia Piano Duo has won high critical acclaim for compelling interpretations of a vast and diverse repertoire. Hailing from Armenian and Ukrainian families, Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn were educated at the Moscow State Conservatory before moving to Indiana University’s School of Music in Bloomington to pursue advanced studies. They presently make their home in the United States and serve on the faculty at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Additionally, they are artistic co-directors of the Norfolk Chamber Consort. Kasparov and Lutsyshyn are critically acclaimed recording artists and both members of the duo are recipients of prestigious awards. Lutsyshyn was a prizewinner at the Vienna Modern Masters Third International Performers’ Recording Awards Competition in 1997 and the William Kapell International Piano Competition in College Park, Maryland in 1990. As a result of the latter, she made her début at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Kasparov won the Albert Roussel Prize at the Orléans International Piano Competition in 1998. In 1994, he gave the première of the newly discovered edition of Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, revised by the composer himself. In addition to his career as a pianist, Kasparov is an active composer whose works have been published by Kompozitor in Moscow and recorded by the Atlantic Music Artist Agency in Kiev, among others. His awards include a prize from the Sergey Prokofiev International Composition Competition in Moscow in 1997 for his Piano Sonata No. 2. In 2014, the Invencia Piano Duo won in the Best Classical Category of the Veer Magazine Music Awards.

The duo’s discography includes a 4-volume series of the piano duet works by Florent Schmitt for Grand Piano Records, and albums for Albany and Naxos.  

Album Details

• Title: “Poetic and religious Harmonies for Two’
• Label: Divine Art
• Catalog number:  DDX 21122
• Works:
  • Totentanz (Liszt; arr. Kasparov)
  • Fantasy on Lutheran Chorales (Kasparov)
  • Evocación (Albéniz; arr. Kasparov)
  • Triana (Albéniz; arr. Kasparov)
  • Vers la flame (Scriabin; arr. Kasparov)
  • Cadenza for LvB (Kasparov) 
  • La valse (Ravel; arr. Kasparov)
• Performers: Invencia Piano Duo
  • (Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn)

To be recorded by Matt Twyford at the the Diehn Center for Performing Arts, Norfolk, Virginia soon.