In the years between the two World Wars, Eric Coates cemented his reputation as a master of light music. Direct in its appeal, Coates’s music sweeps the listener up with an ease which is underpinned by the craftsmanship of a great musical mind.
Coates’s music would have been very familiar to radio audiences of his day, and the charming I Sing to You was first broadcast on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ General Forces Programme in March 1940. His Footlights: Concert Valse (1939) had its first outing as a Â鶹ԼÅÄ broadcast with the composer himself conducting.
We also hear one of Coates’s phantasies, a lively tone poem, The Three Bears. Coates’s phantasies were inspired by the stories that his wife read aloud to their son Austin, and this lovely piece, based on the children’s story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, is dedicated to Austin, on his fourth birthday.
Coates’s appreciation of nature is obvious in many of his works and his From Meadow to Mayfair Suite, in three movements begins with the joyful Rustic Dance, so evocative of countryside merrymaking under summer skies. Then we journey through a lush romance, A Song by the Way, to spend an Evening in Town. Indeed, Coates loved the energy and bustle of London, and he and his wife were keen dancers. Today we finish with the Four Centuries Suite, which is dedicated to My Dear Wife, and is a beautiful study of dancing styles through the ages.
