Coates: Springtime Suite, Four Ways Suite, Saxo-Rhapsody & Other Works

Featuring

Andrew Penny
Kenneth Edge
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Eric Coates

Did you know?

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Composition History

Eric Coates's "Saxo-Rhapsody" was commissioned by virtuoso saxophonist Sigurd Raschèr for the 1936 Folkestone Festival and written in less than one month.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Eric Coates is recognized as a master of light music, known for beautiful melodies and wonderful orchestrations with a refinement and symphonic sense few others in the genre could match.

Performer Biography

Andrew Penny, the conductor of this album, has made over 50 recordings for Naxos and Marco Polo labels since 1992, focusing on British music.

Cultural Impact

Many of Eric Coates's pieces became signature tunes for long-running BBC programmes, including "Sleepy Lagoon" for "Desert Island Discs" and "Knightsbridge" from the "London Suite" for "In Town Tonight."

Performer Biography

Kenneth Edge, the saxophone soloist on this album, was the original saxophonist for "Riverdance" and solo clarinettist for the original Broadway production of Boublil and Schönberg's "The Pirate Queen."

Cultural Impact

Eric Coates's "The Dambusters March" gained equal status with Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" as one of the country's great marches.

Composer Biography

Eric Coates, born in 1886, received classical training at the Royal Academy of Music and became principal viola of Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1913.