Archive for organ music

Robert Sholl

New organ recording by Robert Sholl from Métier

Posted by Divine Art Recordings Group on
 11 August, 2022
Robert Sholl
Robert Sholl © Robert Sholl

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 Sholl and 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).

Also find more information at https://www.phantomopera.co.uk/

Album Details

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):

  1. The Ghost with the Death’s Head
  2. You must love me’
  3. The angels wept tonight
  4. At the graveyard at Perros-Guirec
  5. The enchanted violin: the resurrection of Lazarus
  6. The Chandelier
  7. Masked ball
  8. Souterrain: ‘Everything that is underground belongs to him’
  9. ‘I am Don Juan Triumphant’
  10. Christine! Christine!
  11. From the cellars to the house on the lake
  12. In the torture chamber
  13. La mort du Fantôme
  14. 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

Coming Soon News
Tags : , , ,
Carson Cooman, composer

Two New Carson Cooman Albums Coming in 2019

Posted by Divine Art Recording Group on
 2 April, 2019
Erik Simmons, organist
Erik Simmons, organist

Divine Art Records will be releasing two more volumes this year in its continuing series Carson Cooman Organ Music. The extraordinarily talented and prolific writer, organist, composer and teacher, who among many activities is composer in residence at the Memorial Church at Harvard, was recently the subject of an extended feature in the Organ (UK). His writing encompasses many styles – a great deal of liturgical and other works suitable for church performance but also symphonies (for orchestra and for organ), and pieces in all the baroque and classical forms in his own accessible yet modern language. Volume 11 of the series is titled ‘Portals’ after Cooman’s Third organ Symphony of that name, the principal work on the album. This Symphony in itself is specifically religious in concept. This will be released in July 2019. The second album is one that Cooman has prepared especially for Christmas with variations and fantasies on many popular seasonal melodies. Highly recommended for any church Christmas fellowship – give the organist a night off! The Christmas disc will be available by October. (Note: Volume 13 is already recorded and will be scheduled for release early in 2020)

Both albums are beautifully performed by Cooman’s regular collaborator Erik Simmons. Recordings are made via the Hauptwerk system from the Sonnenorgel (Sun Organ) of Stadtkirche St. Peter & Paul, Gorlitz, Germany, a gorgeous instrument constructed 1997-2006 with a large, rich specification.

Portals: Carson Cooman Organ Music, volume 11

Recorded December 2017-April 2018
Divine Art (DDA 25195)
Erik Simmons, organ

Works

  • Carillon after the Bells of Ulm Cathedral
  • Legends: Nos.  1, 2, 3 and 4
  • Tiento de falsas
  • Prehiera pastorale
  • Praeludium in festo S. Thomae apostolic
  • Praeambulum festivum
  • Organ Symphony No. 3 ‘Portals’ (5 movements)

How Great Our Joy: Carson Cooman Organ Music, volume 12 (The Christmas Collection)

Recorded November 2018-January 2019
Divine Art (DDA 25196)
Erik Simmons, organ

Works

  • Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’
  • Fantasy on ‘Veni Emmanuel’
  • Little Partita on a Polish Carol
  • Variations on a Basque Noel
  • Little Fantasia on ‘In dulci jubilo’
  • Carol Paraphrase on a Motive of Wilhelm Wiesmann
  • Voluntary on ‘O du frohliche’
  • Meditation on ‘Es ist ein Ros’
  • Rhapsody on a German Carol
  • O Sleep, Dear holy Babe
  • Rondino for St Joseph
  • All My Heart this Night Rejoices
  • Triptych on a Sorbian Carol
  • Three Pastorales on a German Carol
  • Fantasy on ‘Adeste Fideles’
Coming Soon
Tags : , , ,

More organ albums from Divine Art

Posted by Divine Art Recording Group on
 24 January, 2018

Divine Art has announced the latest in the new series of organ recordings made by American organist Carson Cooman, following his two recent albums of music by Andreas Willscher. The new disc features more works by Willscher and also major pieces by Raimund Schächer (b. 1960).  Schächer is an expert on early, Renaissance and baroque music which is reflected in his often very traditional style, seen here most obviously in his Sonata Antiqua. The recording features the breathtaking sounds of the Sonnenorgel (Sun Organ) at Pfarrkirche, Görlitz, Germany which Divine Art CEO Stephen Sutton considers one of the most beautifully voiced organs he has heard in fifty years.

As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 130 new works have been composed for him by composers from around the world, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD recordings. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He is organist of the Memorial Church at Harvard University.

Cooman is also well known as a prolific composer and Divine Art has three more albums of his organ music, performed by Erik Simmons, in the can for release later this year; these will be volumes 8-10 of the Cooman Organ Music series. The seventh in the series, ‘Owl Night’, will be officially released in March of this year.

The Schächer/Willscher organ works album is scheduled for release on May 18, 2018 on Divine Art (DDA 25168).

News
Tags : , , ,

November Releases

Posted by Divine Art Recording Group on
 9 August, 2017

Look out for three new albums in November (our last issues of 2017). We are delighted to present Volume 6 of the Carson Cooman organ music series (“The Cloak with the Stars”). Cooman also appears, this time as performer, in Andreas Willscher’s Organ Symphonies 19 & 20 and a suite ‘The Beatitudes’; and from Métier we focus on works for solo violin and violin/viola duo by Michael Alec Rose, currently teaching at Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

News
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

@divineartrecordingsgroup

Follow Us On Instagram
🙌 The debut single from soprano Esther Rayo and pianist Peter Grünberg is officially out now! Listen to “Al amor” from Fernando Obradors’ Canciones Clásicas Españolas, Vol. 1 on all top digital platforms today: listn.fm/estrellita [in bio] On 10 October, Métier is thrilled to present Michael Finnissy: Organ Works from acclaimed American organist Forrest Eimold! Don't miss Paul Hindmarsh's marvelous new piece in Classical Music Magazine on the importance of Britain's Brass Bands. A great primer for our new release, Discovering Wilfred Heaton! 3️⃣ Tracks from the 3 October release, Discovering Wilfred Heaton, are #nowplaying on Apple Music Classical and more! Don't miss both of our new Métier new releases on Deezer's New Classical Picks Playlist! ▶️ Listen now in our bio link. Today, Métier presents a “monumental” (The Wire) 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). On all platforms today at listn.fm/finnissypiano Métier Records is thrilled to release “Because They Have Songs” from composer Edward Cowie and featuring Gerard McChrystal and Richard Shaw! Out now on all platforms ▶️ listn.fm/becausetheyhavesongs “This monumental piano release features Michael Finnissy’s Verdi Transcriptions plus English Country-Tunes, and other compositions inspired by 19th century music. Soloist Ian Pace is a leading interpreter of Finnissy’s work, and has played his complete output for piano. Finnissy’s output is prolific, political and complex – he’s a leading late modernist.… luxuriant but challenging textures of the school often called new complexity.” —Andy Hamilton, The Wire Marvelous new MusicWeb International review for Edward Cowie: Because They Have Songs, before its release this Friday! “Buller is a composer who knows how to imbue feelings with ample warmth, colour and tension that keep the ear immersed in his sonic worlds. The musical language is largely tonal, with some roots in sacred choral traditions, yet with sufficient harmonic pungency to provide underpinnings of meaning to Leah Lax’s empathetic, urgent texts in the two extended works.… Conspirare, led by founding Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, respond to all of Buller’s emotional gestures with utmost cohesion and flexibility, and the soloists – basses Michael Hawes and Simon Barrad and soprano Emily Yocum Black – are first-rate.” —Donald Rosenberg, @gramophonemagazine