Financial Times
Berlioz - Damnation of Faust
... this was a performance to remember, in an acoustic distinctly favourable to Berlioz’s rich orchestral resonances. Much was owed to the direction of Richard Cooke, well on top of the work's large scale architecture and broad sweep, his pacing intelligent...

Church Times
Dvorak - Stabat Mater
...it is impossible not to feel the distress underlying the score of the Stabat Mater, and it is a tribute to the Canterbury Choral Society and its superb young orchestra that their performance of the work shortly before Easter was one of such poignancy, immediacy and excellence. ...the chorus’s overall dynamic control was admirable and the endings of movements were consistently well phrased. In short, this seemed a showing as good a several heard on disc, like Canterbury’s recent Berlioz, it deserved recording.

Kentish Gazette
Mahler - 8th Symphony
...Dr., Cooke’s main challenge must have been maintaining cohesion among the multiplicity of singers and instrumentalists. This he achieved with amazing skill through an exemplary display of precise and helpful guidance. All the performers responded obediently and sympathetically. Rapturous and prolonged applause left no doubt about the audience’s verdict.

Verdi - Te Deum, Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Janacek – Glagolitic Mass
...a marathon achievement, flooding the Cathedral with gorgeous sounds.

Bach - St. Matthew Passion
...I left the Cathedral with that glorious final chorus ringing in my head, uplifted.

Mozart Requiem
...performed with the accustomed expertise... it becomes increasingly difficult to fault the activities of the Society under Richard Cooke

Verdi Requiem
...But it is fashionable now to applaud even conductors! Thus Verdi wrote in a letter of 1875, but he would surely have joined the prolonged applause of the packed Cathedral audience for Richard Cooke’s masterly performance of this Requiem... The Choir responded with a new-found cohesion. At no moment did any single voice or section disrupt the overall interpretation...

Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem
The numerous full-sound high climaxes were thrillingly and securely achieved. In contrast, at other times more lyrical and restrained passages were well conveyed with a sense of joy... This was a triumphant evening for Canterbury Choral Society...

Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ
...The Society sings with beautiful control when singing very quietly, and this was just such an occasion – truly memorable.

Saint- Saens - Third Symphony and Duruflé Requiem
...Richard Cooke's clear beat must have been a joy for all the performers. Such excellent performances of two fine works...

Mendlessohn's - Elijah
...Richard Cooke conducted the long oratorio almost as if it were one continuous piece...never allowing the action to sag and unfolding the story with excitement and feeling ...superbly supported by the Choral Society who, in recent years, have developed into a fine choral force... This was a lively and different Elijah...

Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony
... on Saturday night the Nave of the Cathedral was full and the audience waited in anticipation of another outstanding concert that has become the norm for the Canterbury Choral Society...the chorus sang with accuracy and conviction, not only the forte passages but more particularly the piano passages which were very controlled and well-directed. Richard Cooke conducted with true understanding, negotiated the pitfalls and brought it to a moving ending.