Coke Cello Sonatas

Roger Sacheverell Coke

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Coke

Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 24

20:32

I.Andante sostenuto - Allegro moderato7:47

II.Adagio, largo assai, mesto4:32

III.Scherzo: Presto scherzando3:27

IV.Finale (quasi una fantasia): Andante tranquillo - Molto allegro4:46

Coke

Cello Sonata No. 2 in C, Op. 29

25:28

I.Moderato maestoso - Allegro appassionato10:06

II.Adagio molto e maestoso, con gran espressione7:18

III.Finale (quasi variazioni): Allegro non troppo8:04

Coke

Cello Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

26:08

I.Andantino - Allegro11:38

II.Largo assai5:58

III.Scherzo (quasi variazioni)8:32

Recording date12-14 June 2019

Recording locationWyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK

ProducerAdrian Farmer

EngineerAdrian Farmer & Simon Callaghan

Release date3 January 2020

LabelLyrita

Catalogue numberSRCD384

Duration72:08

Raphael Wallfisch and Simon Callaghan muster every ounce of energy to characterise these sonatas. They diligently shade dynamics within the fabric of the narrative and give nuance to each phrase in this well-recorded CD.

The Strad

Mar 2020Source

I can’t imagine greater advocates than the Wallfisch-Callaghan team.

MusicWeb International

Jan 2020Source

In the pianist Simon Callaghan, the Derbyshire-born Roger Sacheverell Coke finds a talented and sympathetic interpreter. On this new disc, Callaghan and cellist Raphael Wallfisch perform Coke’s cello sonatas with great skill, playing with much colour and dramatic flair.

MusicWeb International

Jan 2020Source

Callaghan and the admirable Raphael Wallfisch strain every sinew in their passionate advocacy of Roger Sacheverell Coke. First-rate sound and expert balance, too.

Gramophone

Feb 2020

Callaghan coaxes some radiant luminous sonorities... With hand in glove ensemble, Wallfisch and Callaghan deliver imaginative and resourceful performances

MusicWeb International

Feb 2020Source

Mr. Callaghan is a fine pianist, who sounds better with every new release and who is completely in tune with the music, while Mr. Wallfisch plays this unfamiliar repertoire with tremendous musicality.

British Music Society Journal

Mar 2020

With Raphael Wallfisch (cello)

Thanks to the tireless advocacy of Simon Callaghan, the music of the Derbyshire-born Roger Sacheverell Coke has begun to emerge from the obscurity in which it had languished since the composer's death in 1972. Coke was always an outsider in British musical life: after Eton he took private lessons with Mabel Lander in piano and Alan Bush in composition rather than going to university or music college, and his sympathies ran to Bruckner, Mahler and Rachmaninov at a time when all three were deeply unfashionable among the cognoscenti. His piano concertos nonetheless drew attention, with performances in Bath and Bournemouth and BBC broadcasts in 1934 and 1939.

The three cello sonatas recorded here frame the years 1936 to 1941, the most productive period of Coke's life. The same span produced his second symphony, dedicated to Rachmaninov, the third and fourth piano concertos, the 24 Preludes, the opera The Cenci, two piano sonatas and the first violin sonata — an output all the more remarkable given the illness that would increasingly interrupt his work from this point on.