News

VIVAT has distribution in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the USA. We are thrilled to be working with such committed partners widely across the world. Details of our distributors come on the Distribution page.

Our latest release is a wonderful recording of Purcell Birthday Odes for Queen Mary (VIVAT 122), with the same all-star cast of soloists and an equally illustrious instrumental ensemble as the much-acclaimed VIVAT 121. That first recording of Purcell Odes is here followed up with three glorious odes written to celebrate the birthday of the much-loved Queen Mary II, filled with superb music and fine performances. Ecstatically reviewed, it has been nominated as a 2022 Gramophone Awards finalist

Purcell Royal Odes (VIVAT 121), with an all-star cast of ten voices led by Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Charles Daniels and Matthew Brook, accompanied by a superlative instrumental ensemble. Spanning almost the whole of his period as an established composer, Purcell’s odes show him at his finest. A glorious succession of overtures, choruses, arias and delicious ritornelli display astonishing imagination and ingenuity: yet never far beneath the surface lies the sense of melancholy, of fading glory, that is the hallmark of Purcell’s greatest music. Awarded Gramophone magazine’s “Editor’s Choice” the recording has been received across the world with great critical enthusiasm: “It’s hard to imagine these performances bettered” (Gramophone). A 2021 Gramophone Awards finalist.

Viola de Hoog’s recording of Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonatas (VIVAT 120), coupled with the first recording of Mendelssohn’s own arrangement of the famous Trio in D minor has also been much admired. With a lifetime spent performing chamber and solo repertoire on period instruments, Viola de Hoog is an ideal, passionate exponent for this music, bringing performances that encapsulate the composer’s sense of refined virtuosity. De Hoog is partnered by the astonishing Armenian pianist Mikayel Balyan, who plays an 1847 piano made by Mendelssohn’s favourite maker, Érard. 

With the release of Liederkreis  (VIVAT 119) our Lieder and Song series “Decades” has reached its fourth volume. Distinguished baritone Florian Boesch takes pride of place in the Schumann cycle, backed by a strong supporting cast: sparkling Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan makes a welcome return to the series, as does Russian baritone Alexey Gusev. Swedish mezzo Ida Evelina Ränzlöv and two British tenors, Oliver Johnston and Nick Pritchard, show their mettle, all deftly accompanied by the series’ creator, pianist Malcolm Martineau. Across the series a host of renowned singers are drawing listeners, decade by decade, through a century of song from 1810 to 1910. Each volume presents a well-planned, varied programme, but overall the series also holds a wider aim, building a comprehensive survey of song right through the nineteenth century and, in doing so, is creating an invaluable teaching 

Our 2020 Gramophone Awards finalist, Elegy (VIVAT 118), a recording of countertenor duets by Purcell and Blow from Iestyn Davies and James Hall, continues to garner much praise. This beautifully themed programme of solos and duets centres on elegies, and concludes with Blow’s magnificent ‘Ode on the death of Purcell’. Rarely heard together on one recording are a set of three substantial elegies composed by Purcell and Blow to commemorate the untimely death of the much-loved Queen Mary. Iestyn Davies shows himself to be a true master of this repertoire, beautifully partnered by James Hall and by an ensemble which has dominated the world of Purcell recordings for more than thirty years.