Thanks to the tireless advocacy of the pianistSimon Callaghan, the music of the Derbyshire-bornRoger Sacheverell Coke has started to emerge from theobscurity in which it has languished since thecomposer’s death in 1972. Despite showingconsiderable early promise, Coke remained anoutsider in British musical life. His three cello sonatasframe the years 1936 to 1941 a very productive periodin Coke’s life. Composed towards the end of 1941, the thirdsonata was ‘affectionately dedicated to KinkieHalswell’, an individual whose identity remainsunknown. The sonata represents a further stage inCoke’s musical development, not least in the ambitiousfirst movement. Exhibiting a stronger adherence tosonata form than its two predecessors, the movementexplores new sound worlds with complex thematicmaterial, muscular piano writing, fervent cello lines,and rapid shifts of mood and tempo, with periods ofmysterious sotto voce fragmentation. The overridingtone is one of alienation and instability, the minor keyin the ascendant until an unexpected shift to A majorbrings the movement to a surprisingly optimisticconclusion.
- ISMN: 9790708167402 (M708167402)