Recorder Concerto

Arnold Cooke was born in 1906 and educated at Repton School and Cambridge University. After a three year period of study in Berlin under Hindermith he took up an appointment as Director of Music at the Festival Thestre Cambridge and later as professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music. During the war he served in the Royal Navy. In 1947 he was appointed professor of harmony and composition at Trinity College of Music London.

His output consists in the main of chamber music, though the also wrote a symphony, four concertos, two overtures, some vocal music and an opera Mary Barton based on the novel byMrs Gaskell. This concerto was completed during the early part of 1957.