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Commercial recordings

During Deryck Cooke’s life, his work gave rise to a small number of recordings that were available commercially; other recordings have been released posthumously. Copies of these commercial items are not held in the Archive, but scholars may find a listing helpful:
‘Gustav Mahler Remembered’, ed. Deryck Cooke: contains personal spoken recollections of Mahler by his daughter Anna and his musical associates. (Coupled with Mahler: Symphony No 6; New York Philharmonic, c. Leonard Bernstein.) Item is last side of 2 LP boxed set (CBS 77215; released 1967).

‘An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen’: an extended presentation on Wagner’s ‘Leitmotiv’ technique, featuring 193 music examples played by the Vienna Philharmonic, c. Georg Solti. Item comprises 3LPs, released as part of the re-packaged Solti ‘Ring’ (Decca ZAL 8422-7; 1968); re-released as a separate item with booklet (Coupled with ‘Siegfried Idyll’ and ‘Kinderkatechismus’; Decca RDN S-1; 1969); digitally re-mastered and re-released on 2 CDs with booklet (Decca 443 581-2; 1995). [This item held by the University’s Seeley Historical Library AV Collection as CD 9 & 10]

(Posthumous)‘Mahler: Symphony No.10’: contains the illustrated talk, broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 19 December 1960, in which Cooke introduces Mahler’s final symphony and explains the nature of his editorial work on the draft (Coupled with succeeding studio performance of Cooke’s incomplete first score, and the 1964 premiere of the first full-length ‘performing version’); 3 CD boxed set (Testament STB3 1457; released 2010). [This item held in the University’s Pendlebury Library of Music as CD.M.913]. 

Archive recordings

The Deryck Cooke Archive holds 65 reel-to-reel tapes of various sizes that were in Cooke’s possession at the end of his life. Digital preservation copies has been made but only a provisional hand-list is currently available. Included are:

  • Recordings of broadcasts:
    • Tam O’Shanter: setting of Burns, for tenor soloist, male chorus, piano and strings by Deryck Cooke; perfs incl. BBC Scottish Orchestra (January 1958)
    • Radio talk: ‘Delius: A Centenary Evaluation’ (BBC Third Programme, 20 Jan 1962; gave rise to a Listener article, 25 Jan 1962)
    • Radio talk: ‘The Unity of Beethoven’s Late Quartets’ (BBC Third Programme, 31 Mar 1962, rpt. 9 Mar 1963); gave rise to an article in The Music Review, Vol. 24, February 1963)
    • Radio talk: ‘The Word and the Deed’ (on Mahler; BBC Third Programme, May 1964; gave rise to a Listener article ‘Mahler: The Word and the Deed’ in June 1964)
    • Talk on Mahler’s Tenth Symphony for BBC Transcription Service (no date)
  • Recordings of live occasions:
    • Cooke lecturing at Columbia University, New York City, USA on May 17, 1968
    • Cooke lecturing and in discussion in Boston (other participants include Gunther Schüller and Jack Diether) in (May?) 1968
    • Conversation between Cooke and Havergal Brian at Shoreham, Sussex; no date
  • Recordings not featuring Cooke:
    • Cooke possessed a number of reels which apparently do not feature him or his work, and which he seems to have kept because of their scholarly usefulness and archival value. Among these are several which appear to contain early British, Continental and American performances of his ‘performing version’ of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony; in addition, a number of Mahler-related interviews are held.
    • Talk by Klaus Pringsheim (1883-1972) about his memories of Mahler; no date
    • Conversations between Jerry Bruck and several musicians with personal memories of Mahler: Attilio Marchetti (oboe in Augusteum Orch. Of Rome, 1907); Alfred Friese (timpanist, NY Philharmonic, 1910-11); Dr Weiss (in Munich, 1908); no date 
    • ‘I Remember Mahler’: William Malloch interviews people who saw, heard, knew or played under Mahler (Alfred Sendrey, Viktor Fuchs, Richard Lert, Klaus Pringsheim, Max Steiner, Sophia Edinger, Herbert Borodkin, Benjamin Kohon, Frank Kuchynka, Hermann Martonne, Nathan Liebenbaum, Alois Reiser and Anna Mahler); no date.
Additional items: a number of recordings of Cooke’s broadcasts and lectures have been donated to the Archive by private individuals. The library’s Music Department would be pleased to hear from anyone who holds additional recordings of Deryck Cooke.

For enquiries please contact music@lib.cam.ac.uk