phillipcooke - Latest Comments

Re: On William Walton’s ‘Five Bagatelles’…

Chubberini — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 16:54:54 -0000

Walton's home was on Ischia, not Capri.

Re: On Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Hymn to the Virgin’…

singingchng — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:49:17 -0000

Certainly a very beautiful piece, incredibly sensitive and well-written. Trying to write programme notes on this piece and you are right about 'The Brittten Companion' not being helpful, but so is Peter Evan's 'The Music of Benjamin Britten'!

Re: On The Beatles’ ‘White Album’…

Andy Clark — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:35:12 -0000

Phil..It appears that you maybe weakening and perhaps I should mail you Astral Weeks, Led Zep 4 or a little known album by the name of Dark Side of the Moon... Moving into more modern albums such as Out of the Blue..or perhaps The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

I'm impressed (easily I may add)...or perhaps respectful of what they achieved ..and that includes George Martin's influence / input using what was available in the studio back in "the day". Between The Beatles and Pepper's the creativity was often matched but never beaten by Brian Wilson, by which I refer to Pet Sounds.

Perhaps if you're going to do a regular (bi-annual) album review Pet Sounds could be a good comparison.

Hope all is ok up there.. Say Hi for me..and hope to see what will be the four of you soon.

Re: Recording of ‘Preces and Responses’

James Hoffmann — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 11:45:20 -0000

You could probably just embed their hosted mp3s in this post for lazy people like me...
(I did go and download them though, obviously....)

Re: On Writing an Oratorio…

Gary Cole — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 07:08:14 -0000

Howard Goodall - Eternal Light (although called a 'Requiem' it feels more like an 'in memoriam' oratorio), David Bednall - 'Welcome all wonders', Alan Bullard - Wondrous Cross. This is a meditation on the seven last words. If you're writing for Advent how about unifying the piece around the 'Great 'O's'? I'm sure I'll think of some more recent things... G

Re: On Gustav Holst’s ‘Egdon Heath’…

Adam Stern — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:34:06 -0000

Dear Mr. Cooke,

Many thanks for your essay, and for your obvious passion for "Egdon". I, too, love this work more than any other by Holst; I have conducted it twice to date, and both times were extremely moving experiences for me. It is a profoundly beautiful work, even more "removed" than "Neptune" from anything human and yet so passionate and full of passions both overt and covert... I hope that it eventually takes its place amongst the better-known English orchestral works, as the repertoire could certainly stand to take it on!

Best regards,

Adam Stern
Seattle Washington USA

Re: On Kenneth Leighton’s ‘Second Service’…

markfromireland — Sat, 04 May 2013 17:33:37 -0000

I agree with you about Leighton's (or any composer's) 'tics' one becomes used to them, and they become somewhat predictable. The solution as you say is to take each piece on its merits. Granted that's sometimes easier said than done. I like Leighton's music but I must admit that I prefer it in smallish doses spread out over time.

mfi

Re: Arrangements

Michael Aimiyo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:53:51 -0000

I actually saw you perform , rather good I would say ! So I found your blog--cool

Re: ‘The Hazel Wood’: JAM in Scotland

Ed Armitage — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:49:56 -0000

MUCH looking forward to hearing it, Mr Cooke!

Re: On the Choral / Instrumental Divide…

Alex Skorecki — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:59:05 -0000

You don't mention the factor of performers. Local amateur choirs are a more widespread phenomenon than amateur instrumental groups. This gives choral music a more populist image, and choirs sometimes opt for cheering, enjoyable but nevertheless lighter works. (I stumbled upon your post via hearing Gabriel Jackson on Radio 3 today.)

Re: On Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘Flos Campi’…

J.ames — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:31:36 -0000

Excellent article - I discovered the music this afternoon , after my son had played it - astounding music j.ames, j.ames123@btinternet.com

Re: On Jonathan Dove’s ‘Seek him that maketh the seven stars’…

Paul — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 07:26:40 -0000

I heard this performed in Salisbury Cathedral on 31.10. 2012 I had the sense that this Cathedral's entire function in that moment and perhaps always was to present this single piece of music, just beautiful.

Re: Chamber

tboyhanka — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:48:25 -0000

http://replicahk.com

Re: On Paweł Łukaszewski’s ‘Nunc Dimittis’…

cornishadrian — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 08:53:38 -0000

Nice piece (yours, and his!). His ear for chord-spacing is immaculate.

Re: Another ‘Invocation’ Review

evertonphill — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 08:16:44 -0000

Or 'Cheesy Raymond'...

Re: Another ‘Invocation’ Review

Simon Smith1980 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 07:34:14 -0000

Not a patch on Madagascar man I feel...

Re: New Recordings

evertonphill — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 06:38:28 -0000

Cheers! Busy times. PAC

Re: New Recordings

Douglas Pew — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:13:03 -0000

Very nice!!

Re: On the Choral / Instrumental Divide…

evertonphill — Mon, 28 May 2012 06:44:16 -0000

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I agree, I may actually be discussing the divide between church music and concert music. As someone said to me recently, we can't be too harsh on Victorian church composers, they never stated that their music was the equal of concert music, just fulfilling a liturgical need. But it hasn't really helped the cause of future church composers! But it should be top-notch, as should all music for whatever genre - shouldn't it?

Re: On the Choral / Instrumental Divide…

Christian Morris — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:29:38 -0000

Hi Phil. Great post. I think there is definitely a divide between the two genres, but one that *is* occasionally bridged by mainstream composers (Maxwell Davies' 'Job' springs to mind). I wonder whether you also describe the divide between music for the church and music for the concert hall. Again this has been bridged by mainstream art composers such as Tippett and Britten, but the problem is, and has always been, that a great deal of music used in cathedrals and churches is considered beneath mainstream composition. Sadly I think there has often been an element of truth to this; some of the Victoriana clap-trap that one has to sit through on an average evensong is dreadful. On the other hand, however, this attitude has left some of the most marvellous repertoire (Leighton/Howells etc.) marginalized. There are mainstream composers today working in cathedrals (e.g. Nico Muhly, though I think his decidedly average output is not adding much), so let’s hope that this unfair characterisation can be overcome.

Re: Review in ‘Church Times’

Dave — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:34:10 -0000

Nice Review