This is the first recorded collection of Arnold Cooke’s complete music for oboe and is a must for all lovers of British chamber music. Cooke had studied both in Cambridge and in Berlin and his music is a delightful infusion of English and Germanic styles with its innate Englishness always apparent. This recording features The Pleyel Ensemble's oboist Melinda Maxwell, who herself studied in both England and Germany.
This collection contains the two Oboe Sonatas (1957 and 1962), the delightful Quartet for Oboe and String Trio and the evocative and poignant Intermezzo for Oboe and piano, one of Cooke’s last works. The recording concludes with Cooke's Sonata for Two Pianos, performed here by pianists Harvey Davies and his mother Helen. © MPR