Credits:

Cooke, Arnold (1906-2005)

Description:

Composer Arnold Cook was born in Yorkshire in 1906. Although he studied history as a student, he decided to pursue a career in music and went to Berlin in 1929, where he studied composition and piano with Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Academy of Music. He became music director of the Cambridge Festival Theatre, and in 1933 was appointed professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music, but his works have been largely neglected since his death. He was a prolific composer, leaving behind two operas, six symphonies, numerous concertos, and a great deal of chamber music, but he also wrote some wonderful music for organ. Cook owes much of his style to his mentor Hindemith, and his works also incorporate skillful counterpoint. It is also characterized by Bartók- and Shostakovich-style storytelling and a sense of brilliance in the manner of Walton. Naxos Japan