Martin Jones

Martin Jones – Elisabeth Lutyens: Piano Works, Volume 3 (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 15, 2024 · Comments off

In this, the final volume of his landmark survey of the piano works of Elisabeth Lutyens, pianist Martin Jones presents further world premiere recordings from this undeservedly neglected composer. Featuring works from across the span of Lutyen’s career, the earliest works to be included on this album are the short pieces Overture, Berceuse, Barcarolle and Dance Souvenance from 1944. The unpublished Holiday Diary from 1949, Helix from 1967, and Three Books of Bagatelles from 1979 complete the set.

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Martin Jones – Piano Music of Oscar Fernândez (2024) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · January 8, 2024 · Comments off

Pianist Martin Jones had been among the most versatile and prolific players on the current scene. He has specialized in, but not restricted himself to, British, Spanish, and Eastern European music. Jones was born on February 4, 1940, in Witney in England’s Oxfordshire region. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where his teachers were Guido Agosti, Guy Jonson, and Gordon Green. Early recognition came in the form of the Dame Myra Hess Award in 1968. That year, he made prestigious debuts at London’s Southbank Centre and Carnegie Hall in New York.

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Martin Jones – Piano Music of Radamés Gnattali (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 16, 2023 · Comments off

Radamés Gnattali (b. Porto Alegre, 27 January 1906; d. Rio de Janeiro, 3 February 1988). Brazilian composer, pianist and conductor. Although classically trained his working life was dominated by popular music. His influence on the arrangements and orchestrations of Brazilian popular music was powerfully felt through his weekly broadcasts on Rádio Nacional which began in 1938, and continued into the mid 1950s. His own compositions are a conscious fusion of classical and popular idioms. Even though Gnattali’s association with popular music undoubtedly prejudiced his reception as a classical composer he was never critical or dissatisfied with Brazilian music. Even towards the end of his life he could say ‘I have never been frustrated with making popular music. I do it gladly and enjoy it very much …If I had gone to Europe, I might have been a great pianist – because I had the qualities for it – but I would never be a Brazilian composer’. This programme is primarily drawn from Gnattali’s earliest works. In this period he is either writing melodies in a popular style, or using folk melodies directly, and the characteristic shape of Brazilian song is never absent for long.

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Martin Jones & Adrian Farmer – French Music for Two Pianos (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 21, 2023 · Comments off

Martin Jones has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention in 1968 when he received the Dame Myra Hess Award. The same year he made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances. He has made over 90 recordings with Nimbus Records exploring music that is not often played including the complete works of 18 composers. Adrian Farmer trained as an accompanist at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester following a music degree at Birmingham University. Adrian has made several recordings with other Nimbus artists: bass-baritone Shura Gehrman, pianists Nina Walker, Simon Callaghan, and Martin Jones. It is with soprano Charlotte de Rothschild that he has found his most enduring partnership releasing albums which include the premiere recording of the songs of her ancestor, Mathilde de Rothschild.

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Martin Jones – Elisabeth Lutyens: Piano Works, Volume 1 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 23, 2023 · Comments off

The name Elisabeth Lutyens is synonymous with music that is overtly serial, uncompromisingly modernist, and of daring and fearless individuality. Yet there is much to explore behind the naturally combative and provocative facade of this extraordinary composer, whose music is at various times sensual, thoughtful and delicate, as well as dark, turbulent and even violent.

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Martin Jones – Piano Music of Francisco Mignone (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 20, 2023 · Comments off

Although Mignone wrote a large number of pieces for piano solo, his preference had always been for the orchestra, and for solo song. In his works for the piano the search for orchestral colour and texture is clearly evident in his use of ornamentation, spaced chords and explorations at the extreme ends of the keyboard. His focus on piano composition tended to be sporadic, producing many pieces in the 1940s, almost nothing in the 50s and early 60s, and eventually a return to larger forms, in particular the 2nd, 3rd and 4th sonatas.

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Martin Jones – Elisabeth Lutyens: Piano Works, Volume 2 (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · October 21, 2022 · Comments off

Continuing his landmark survey of the piano works of Elisabeth Lutyens, pianist Martin Jones delves deeper into the music of this undeservedly neglected composer. This second volume features further world premiere recordings including pieces from her early maturity such as The Check Book, a compelling collection of twelve miniatures for children; Piano e Forte that recalls Lutyens’s lifelong enthusiasm for the music of Debussy and explores the possibilities of the instrument in a way she had never attempted before; and Maybe–Encore Op. 159, which was Lutyens’s final work for piano composed in 1982. Also included is an early unpublished sonata movement (Allegro molto) possibly written as early as the 1930s.

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