Shot by a sniper on the Somme in April 1918 aged 29‚ Cecil Coles was born in Kirkcudbright in 1888 and studied at Edinburgh University‚ the Royal College of Music and Morley College in London. At the latter he was introduced to Holst‚ who remained a lifelong friend and supporter (and whose Ode to Death bears a dedication to ‘Cecil Coles and the fallen’). In 1908‚ the 20­year­old budding composer won a scholarship to study in Stuttgart‚ where he was subsequently appointed Assistant Conductor at the Royal Opera House there. In 1913‚ the recently married Coles returned to England‚ touring with the Beecham Opera Company and teaching at Morley College. Two years later‚ he volunteered for active service in France‚ where‚ amid the horrors of trench­warfare‚ he continued to compose. Of the six works chosen for resuscitation (gathered from manuscripts retrieved by the composer’s daughter‚ Penny Catherine Coles)‚ the most striking is perhaps Fra Giacomo‚ a red­blooded‚ excitingly assured scena for baritone and orchestra which Coles himself conducted at London’s Queen’s Hall in June 1914. The Four Verlaine Songs for soprano and orchestra from 1909 also have their moments (try the Wagnerian sweep of ‘A slumber vast and black’)‚ as do the two other purely orchestral offerings from Coles’s Stuttgart sojourn‚ the Scherzo in A minor from 1909­10 (according to annotator Jeremy Dibble‚ possibly intended as part of a full­scale symphony) and the skilfully wrought 1911 concert overture‚ The Comedy of Errors. Of the three movements that make up the 1905­7 Suite from the Scottish Highlands‚ it’s the nobly imposing outer portions of the concluding ‘Lament’ which resonate longest in the memory. That just leaves those two surviving movements from the suite Behind the Lines (upon which Coles was working at the time of his death): the manuscript of the deftly scored ‘Estaminet du Carrefour’ (‘Tavern at the crossroads’) was posted to Holst at Christmas 1917‚ while the haunting ‘Cortège’ remained in short score (it’s given here in an sensitive orchestration by Martyn Brabbins). On this evidence‚ the indisputably gifted Coles was perhaps not quite blessed with the heaven­sent genius one finds in‚ say‚ A Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth (to name another victim of the Great War)‚ but if you’ve enjoyed this team’s previous‚ sterling efforts on behalf of Coles’s fellow­countrymen such as Mackenzie‚ MacCunn and Wallace‚ you should investigate without delay. Certainly‚ performances‚ production and presentation are all past praise‚ and this is a disc already earmarked for my Critics’ Choice come the year’s end.