Martin Jones was a chorister at Magdalene College School and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He has been one of Britain’s most highly regarded solo pianists since first coming to international attention 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 on both sides of the Atlantic.
He is a prolific recording artist and his many discs for Nimbus Records include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Grainger, Szymanowski, Stravinsky, Korngold, Reizenstein, Jean Français, the sonatas of Alun Hoddinott and Czerny and several Spanish piano masters. He recorded four CDs featuring all Richard Rodney Bennett’s piano music for Metronome label. Other recent recordings include Rediscovered Piano Works by Welsh composer Daniel Jones for Lyrita, and for Resonus Classics three discs of Elisabeth Lutyens solo piano works, and Lutyens Music for Piano and Orchestra and Elizabeth Maconchy’s Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Martin Jones has performed as concerto soloist with many of the leading British orchestras, as well as in the USA and Russia, and toured Canada as soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Performances include Shostakovich’s Concerto No 1 in Central and South America with the London Festival Orchestra, a regional tour playing Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Hallé Orchestra, the Britten Piano Concerto in St Petersburg, the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Scharwenka’s Piano Concerto No 1 in the USA, Brahms Concerto No 1 with the Oman Symphony Orchestra, and Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
His performance repertoire, as well as encompassing most of the standard works for piano, also includes unusual concertos such as the Busoni Concerto, which he performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Norman Del Mar. He has also championed the music of British composers and has performed concertos by Britten, Benjamin, Mathias, McCabe and Lambert. He gave the first performance of the revised version of Alun Hoddinott’s Third Concerto at the 1974 BBC Promenade Concerts, and recorded Hoddinott’s Second Concerto with Andrew Davis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca.
Martin Jones has given recitals throughout Great Britain, and as well as regular broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, he has given recitals for Brussels Radio, RTÉ in Dublin, DeutschlandRadio in Berlin, and ABC in Australia. In the USA he has served as jury member on several international piano competitions, and performed in New York, Washington, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and California. He gave the world premiere of Ravelled Threads by American composer, Wendy Carlos in New York, and he was the first major British artist to give a solo recital in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Other major recital appearances include the Adelaide Festival, a programme of Percy Grainger at the Eifeler Musiktage in Germany, and the complete Iberia of Albéniz at London’s South Bank Centre.
“I have not mentioned Martin Jones’s playing yet, but it is tribute to his expressive intelligence and natural (self-effacing?) pianism that it is Lutyens that one hears throughout, not Jones, which is exactly as it should be. This will not appeal to all tastes, but with superb sound from Resonus, it is strongly recommended.” Gramophone
“Martin Jones’s survey of the piano music (of Elisabeth Lutyens) – in meticulous, clearly affectionate performances – should fill at least one of the yawning gaps.” Guardian
“Martin Jones obviously relishes every ounce of Bennett’s superbly crafted and attractive music. Warmly recommended” BBC Radio 3 CD Review
“…you could hardly wish for a more sympathetic and scintillating soloist…” Gramophone