Historiae de divini // Tales of the Divine

Violinist Max Baillie combines dazzling technique with emotional range in this new type of recital in the Colnaghi Gallery.

More intimate than a front-row seat, watch the details of a 16th century triptych come to life as the music unfolds.

"The best online concert I've attended all year," said one audience member.

Directed by Jonathan Berman.

The programme

The music: 

Partita No. 2 in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Louange à l’immortalité de Jésus from Quartet For The End Of Time by Olivier Messiaen. The Messiaen is played with Diana Ketler.

The art:

Anonymous (Antwerp School, first half of the 16th century) and Jacob De Backer (Antwerp, c. 1555-1585). The performance was filmed at the Colnaghi Gallery in London. The director is Jonathan Berman, the orchestral conductor.

Watch the trailers

Awards and recognition

This film won the award for best classical music performance (film) at the Palm Beach International Music Awards 2021 and a Bronze Medal Award at the Global Music Awards 2021.

Historiae de Divini was also a finalist in the International Music Video Awards and semi-finalist in the Munich Music Video Awards 2021. It was highly commended for cinematography in the Classical Music Digital Awards 2020.

About the artists

Max Baillie

British-German violinist and violist Max Baillie is sought after as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader in the UK and abroad. His musical life reflects his interest in the cross-pollination of musical styles, having led Bjork’s string orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall, recorded with guitar maestro John Williams, and dueted with Bobby McFerrin in New York. From folk tunes in the Welsh hills to major festivals across the world, Max leads a chameleonic life embracing classical, improvisation, and appearances on stages big and small.

Diana Ketler

Diana Ketler was born in Riga into a well-known family of musicians. She commenced her studies of music and piano at the age of five at the E Darzins specialised music school in Riga and played her concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vassily Sinaisky. She graduated from the Latvian Academy of Music with a first class Honours degree in 1993, the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg and Royal Academy in London. In 1996/1997 and 2000/2001 Diana was awarded the Hodgson Piano Fellowship at the Academy. Diana has appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the world and is frequently engaged at festivals, for solo recitals and masterclasses. Diana is currently a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music and artistic director of the Chiemgauer Musikfrühling Festival in Bavaria, Germany.

Jonathan Berman

Jonathan Berman is a Conductor who performs with orchestras all over the world. He is known for his unique approach to communicating complex ideas with all audiences. He goes above and beyond the traditional role of a conductor, forming the trust of audiences from traditional listeners to the next generation. He is currently in the process of recording the complete symphonies and promoting the music of Franz Schmidt. ​At the start of lockdown, he began the website standtogethermusic.com in order to promote artists who have had cancellations.

About FOUND SPACES

‍Historiae de Divini // Tales of the Divine is part of FOUND SPACES, a programme of online events including the premieres of 4 new digital concerts all made for the screen. Join us in Greengage's continued efforts to push the boundaries of digital performances, make paid work for artists and demonstrate the power of the arts to bring people together.

This digital performance was premiered on 25 November 2020 at 7pm UK time.

The premiere event consisted of a screening, followed by a live audience discussion with Max Baillie, Jonathan Berman, Emily Ingram (Founder of Greengage Ventures), Chloe Stead (Senior Global Director, Colnaghi) and chaired by Sophie Mei Birkin.

Sophie Mei is a London based artist and researcher currently completing her master’s in sculpture and contemporary art theory at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she has been awarded the Euan Uglow Scholarship. Sophie studied History of Art at Cambridge University, where she was awarded a Bateman Academic Scholarship, the Hamish Maxwell Prize for Art History and the Winifried Georgina Holgate Pollard Prize for outstanding academic performance. She is co-founder of SLO, an interdisciplinary art and architectural collective, whose projects include a floating lake house commission for Waking Life Arts Festival in Portugal and a restaurant performance space for HORST in Belgium. As curator of the Multimedia Anthropology Lab, a research group experimenting in emerging technologies for visual research, Sophie has helped organise and participated in exhibitions, workshops and lecture series including Technologies of Capture and Perspective Exchange as part of Hyphen Labs takeover of the Tate Exchange, Tate Modern [2019]. Her recent art exhibitions include: London Grads Now at the Saatchi Gallery, London [2020] and 5 Hours at 42 Molton St, London [2020].