Publicity Shots - 8514 (c) Kaupo KikkasDrop ShadowSIMONCALLAGHANpianist

Concerts

© Kaupo Kikkas

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.

1940

Concert

8th March7.30pmCentral Hall, Derby

Performers
Roger Sacheverell Coke (piano) Barbara Welby (soprano) Alan Morton (cello) Raymond Mosley (violin)
Programme
Coke
15 Variations and Finale for piano in C minor, Op. 37
Coke
Elegiac Trio for piano, violin and cello in C minor, Op. 32
Coke
Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 24
Coke
Songs (words by Humbert Wolfe)
Coke
24 Preludes for piano, Op. 33/34
Coke
Cello Sonata No. 2 in C, Op. 29
Notes
The violinist was Raymond Mosley, and the change from the player first announced is a change of artist rather than a disagreement between sources. The advance announcement of 16 January 1940 said 'The violinist on the occasion will be Eric Eaden'; the advertisement of 7 March names 'RAYMOND MOSLEY, Violinist', and the review of 9 March has Coke 'with Raymond Mosley (violin) and Alan Morton (cello)' giving the first complete public performance of the Elegiac Trio, op. 32, and praises 'Mr. Morton and Mr. Mosley' by name. Eric Eaden appears nowhere else in the surviving record. The Trio's four movements are Elegy, Adagio, Scherzo and Finale quasi una Fantasia. Barbara Welby was too ill to perform. A later article, in the Western Daily Press of 10 January 1955, says the Elegiac Trio was a first performance. The Derbyshire Advertiser report is dated only to March 1940. The concert is also recorded in Coke's own performance lists, in the front cover of the manuscript of the Variations op. 37 and in the cover of the manuscript of the Preludes opp. 33/34.
Source
Derby Evening Telegraph, 16 January 1940 — Coke0437 Derby Evening Telegraph, 7 March 1940 — Coke0456 Derby Evening Telegraph, 9 March 1940 — Coke0458 Derby Daily Telegraph, 11 March 1940 A couple of articles, 15 March 1940 Bristol Paper?, 15 March 1940 Nottingham Guardian, 9 March 1940 Derby Daily Telegraph, 16 March 1940 Derbyshire Advertiser Western Daily Press, 15 March 1940 Derby Daily Telegraph, 2 December 1939 Western Daily Press Bristol, 10 January 1955
Provenance
British Newspaper Archive (Coke0409–Coke0586), Manuscript front cover, Coke's Scrapbook (Coke0142–Coke0296)

Privacy statement