Ispettore Coke

The late Romanticism of Roger Sacheverell Coke will appeal to anyone who enjoys Rachmaninov or Delius, Grainger or Scriabin. If that sounds an intriguingly eclectic mix, Coke establishes his own distinctive voice, and this is an important addition to the Romantic Piano Concerto series.

1993 collection featuring 14 tracks including 'Everyday I Have The Blues', 'Gone So Long' & 'Hey Now Baby'. Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd, better known as Professor Longhair or "Fess" for short, was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist. He was active in two distinct periods, first in the heyday of early rhythm and blues from 1949 to 1964 and later in the resurgence of interest in traditional jazz after the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1970. His piano style has been described as "instantly recognizable, combining rumba, mambo, and calypso." Professor Longhair can be considered as the creator of the New Orleans Rhythm & Blues. Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 (Early Influence).

These sonatas display an ambiguous blend of romantic lyricism and grave chromaticism, with cello and piano treated as equal partners with solo passages for the pianist punctuating the musical discourse. Coke exploits extremes of register in both instruments: high spare unison passages in the piano, at times seeming to prefigure late Shostakovich, and rich, dark sonorities in the cello. The range demanded of the cellist is especially wide in all three cello sonatas, with some high-lying passages notated at extreme dynamics…