Recordings of my music
Phillip Cooke: Organ Music
I’m really looking forward to the release of Phillip Cooke: Organ Music on the Regent Records label in August this year. The recording was made by organist Ed Jones in Blackburn Cathedral in October 2024 and is almost all of my organ music from 2003-2024, including one of my earliest pieces, Elegy. I’ve written quite a lot for the instrument over the years, so it was wonderful to have the opportunity to bring these pieces together on such an amazing organ. And to have a organist such as Ed (who I have known for years) as such a willing advocate and dedicated performer was such a thrill. The release features small pieces, large pieces, some based on hymns, some on plainsong and some just for the love of the organ. There is lot of slow music, but there is also a lot of loud music. I hope people enjoy listening to it as much I did being at the recording. PAC
28/07/2026: Received the CD copies today, looks great! The recording is released (to buy or stream) on the 21 August.
15/08/2026: First review from the arts website Chimeo, where Andrew Palmer is very complimentary of the recording! My favourite quotes are: ‘Howells hovers somewhere behind these pages, reimagined in a voice that is unmistakably Cooke's own’; ‘What comes through most is a sense of landscape: low cloud settling over water, blues deepening into grey, and a mistiness that Jones renders with real sensitivity to the instrument's resources’ and ‘Elegy…shows this palette at its most affecting. Soft, modal lines dissolve into moments of real intensity, and Jones knows exactly when to let the silence do the work, allowing lines to creep up on the listener, vanish, and reappear with mounting force. It's a piece that seems to explore time rather than simply pass through it.’ How nice!
21/08/2026: Recording released today! I enjoyed listening to it in the kitchen…
23/08/2026: Great review from Belgian website Klassiek-Centraal, where Dirk Smits is extremely nice about the recording! Some of the highlights include: ‘It is never easy to translate Gregorian chant into effective organ music while retaining its identity and avoiding repetition. Cooke succeeds admirably. The vibrant O Lux Beata Trinitas is a particularly fine example of his ability to preserve the essence of the chant while clothing it in fresh and engaging musical language’, ‘Two works, however, left an especially profound impression on me. The first is the Elegy…this is music that reaches the very heart of human experience and reminds us of the extraordinary emotional power of sound’ and ‘As a listener with a deep affection for liturgy and the sung word, I can only conclude: mission accomplished. This is a genuine little masterpiece, a recording in which every element falls perfectly into place.’ That’s kind!