released September 17, 2023

The Three Elizabeths - Suite: in the darkest days of World War 2 during which Coates and his wife Phyllis remained in London almost without a break, braving the air-raids and flying bombs, Eric felt that his writing days were over. He was nearly 60. One day a letter came from a clergyman, Rev Arthur L. Hall, a complete stranger to Eric, suggesting an orchestral suite to be called 'The Three Elizabeths': Elizabeth Tudor, Elizabeth of Glamis, and the (then) Princess Elizabeth. Eric thought it the best idea that anyone had ever given him and a perfect theme for a musical treatment. 'Gone was my feeling of exhaustion, gone was my fear that I should write no more, forgotten were the air-raids. My imagination was fired. So I sat down at my desk and began to sketch out some ideas.' They were soon completed but as the flying bombs in London became more frequent, Eric retreated to the peace of the Vale of Evesham for his orchestration. The first performance, conducted by Eric, was given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in its war-time home of Bedford, on Christmas Eve, 1944.

The Four Centuries Suite was written slightly before The Three Elizabeths Suite. It portrays the four centuries musically from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century through appropriate dance forms: the seventeenth century features a Hornpipe, the eighteenth a melancholy Pavane and a lively Tambourin, the nineteenth a romantic Waltz, and the twentieth century is entitle Rhythm, or dance band music, featuring the big band sound of the 1930s and early 1940s. The work is dedicated to Coates's wife Phyllis and the first performance was given by the BBC Theatre Orchestra conduced by Stanford Robinson on July 21, 1942..

The Three Bears - Phantasy is an early work of Coates and calls for a smaller orchestra than the later works. It was composed and dedicated to Coates's son, Austin, fir his fourth birthday in 1926.The work graphically describes the well-known nursery story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The Three Men - Suite was commissioned by the BBC producer Eric Maschwitz for a special concert of Coates's music broadcast by the BBC. Coates wrote of it: 'I decided on the idea of describing in music three personalities whom we all of us know: The Countryman, The Townsman and The Seaman. The Man from the Country came out in the form of a rhythmic country dance jig; in The Man About Town, introducing a tenor saxophone, I hit upon a nostalgic kind of melody which lent itself to syncopated treatment in the middle section, and in The Man from the Sea I employed an old sea-shanty 'When Johnnie comes down to Hilo' to give local colour to my marriner. The Suite is dedicated to Stanford Robinson and the BBC Theatre Orchestra who gave the first performance on 10 March 1935.

The Dance of the Orange Blossoms is taken from Coates's six movement Suite for Orchestra entitled The Jester at the Wedding and dates from 1932.

A detailed biography of Eric Coates may be found at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Coates