Arnold Cooke : Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Album review

The English composer Arnold Cooke was a student of Paul Hindemith in the 1920s and emerged as perhaps his top British follower after World War II. His music is little heard these days outside of Britain, which is a shame inasmuch as he does not fall neatly on either side of the conservative-avant garde divide in force during the third quarter of the 20th century. Both these works are in four traditional movements, with fully standard structures, but they are compact and brisk, without a hint of academic dullness. From his teacher Cooke absorbed a tendency toward the distinctive treatment of solo instruments within fixed larger frameworks, and the variety of ways in which the rest of the orchestra is made to play off the fanfare-like brasses here is delightful. Sample the "Poco lento" slow movement of the Symphony No. 4 in E flat major (track 2) and note the subtle wind writing; it's English in mood despite its Germanic inspiration. These recordings, made from radio broadcasts in 1975 and 1981, are part of a series of albums captured from the radio by Lyrita founder Richard Itter, who after several years of experimentation had by this time achieved reasonable results; the sound is clear, and the performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 4) and BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 5) are straightforward. Recommended for anyone interested in unearthing the music lost to the long modernist diktat.

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