“Inspirations and imaginings, evolving, changing English usage, landscapes, friendships and passings lie behind this album… Loosely, the songs we’ve selected embrace multiple interpre- tations and nuances of ‘divine’. As well as, I could argue, that sentiment of English song and English speaking composers embodying the [Blake/Parry] ‘Jerusalem-Builded-Here’ trope. The world I came from (singing in choir stalls), along with how countertenors are perceived generally, has been hard to escape. So here perhaps I’m taking on the challenge. As well as an opportunity to include songs written for me that for some while I’ve been needing to put down on disc.” – Iestyn Davies.
‘Divine Music’ marks Iestyn Davies’ third recital album on Signum Classics. The ‘Four Songs’ (Purcell/ Adès), Spoons Aria (Adès), Four Traditional Songs and Old Bones (Muhly) are world premiere recordings. Muhly’s Four Traditional Songs were also written dedicated to Iestyn Davies.
Song of the Day “This is just gorgeous” – BBC Radio 3 Essential Classics
“Beautiful” – Radio 4
“A characterful, unusual programme…[Davies] flexible instrument and impressive range” – Gramophone
★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording “Little if anything phases Davies technically: he pins the setting’s wide intervals with laser accuracy, and easily encompasses the trickily embellished closing ‘Hallelujah’…The Lover in Winter is included, the ice-like angularities of the piano part contrasting vividly with Davies’s hovering, velvet-soft vocalism…[The Four Traditional Songs by Nico Muhly] Davies and Middleton slot together seamlessly, equal partners in the heartworn melancholy Muhly forefronts in these settings…taken whole this is a classy and interestingly varied recital, with unfailingly sensitive contributions from both performers.” – BBC Music Magazine