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Concerts

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This is every performance of Coke's music that has so far been traced, from his schooldays at Eton in 1929 to the present, assembled from printed programmes, press notices, Radio Times billings, his mother's household accounts and the composer's own annotations. It is not a complete record and it cannot be: he was played most often in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, sometimes in a converted stable at his own house, and much of that went unreported. There is a gap of twenty-five years between 1987 and 2012 in which exactly one performance has been found. If you know of a concert that is missing, or have a programme, a cutting or a memory of hearing this music, please do get in touch.

1942

Concert

25th OctoberNottingham

Performers
Roger Sacheverell Coke (conductor) Barbara Welby (soprano) Brookhill Symphony Orchestra
Programme
Coke
Symphonic Poem No. 1, Op. 45 ‘The Lotos Eaters’ (after Tennyson) (Premiere)
Coke
Vocal Concerto No. 2, Op. 47 (First performance with orchestra)
Notes
A concert given for Coke's thirtieth birthday, five days after it. It gave two first performances. The Lotos Eaters, op. 45, dedicated to the Brookhill Symphony Orchestra, was heard for the first time: Coke's own typed programme note is headed 'written by the Composer for the premiere, Nottingham Oct. 25 1942, at a concert for his 30th birthday by the Brookhill Symphony Orchestra, to whom the work is dedicated, conducted by him' (Coke0627). The Second Vocal Concerto, op. 47, was given for the first time with orchestra, Barbara Welby singing; Coke wrote on the wrapper of the piano score 'premiere with Orchestra: Oct 25/42, at Nottingham, by Barbara Welby & the Brookhill S.O. (cond. by the Composer)' (Coke0037). The concerto had already been given with piano at Brookhill on 27 May 1942. The household account book kept by Coke's mother at Brookhill enters, under 27 October 1942, a payment of eight pounds six shillings and sixpence described as "R's concert", settled two days after this date. It is the only figure in the archive for what one of his orchestral concerts cost, and it was paid out of the housekeeping. The name written beside it is read as Hinrichsen but the reading is not certain. The venue within Nottingham is not recorded.
Source
Coke's typed programme note on The Lotos Eaters — Coke0627 Coke's autograph wrapper of the Second Vocal Concerto, op. 47 — Coke0037 Dorothy Maye Coke's household account book, October 1942 — Coke0073
Provenance
Chesterfield Library; Brookhill Hall (Coke0073)

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