Martin Jones

Pianist Martin Jones built a reputation over many decades as one of the most adaptable and productive performers of his generation, focusing extensively though not exclusively on repertory from Britain, Spain, and Eastern Europe. Born in the Oxfordshire town of Witney on February 4, 1940, he trained at London’s Royal Academy of Music under Guido Agosti, Guy Jonson, and Gordon Green. In 1968 the Dame Myra Hess Award brought early acclaim, followed that same year by high-profile debuts at the Southbank Centre and Carnegie Hall. Those engagements opened doors to concerto appearances across Britain and farther afield, among them a performance of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in Australia. He also tackled formidable virtuoso scores such as Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Brussels Radio, RTE in Dublin, and ABC in Australia. From 1971 until 1983 Jones served as pianist-in-residence at Cardiff University. His long association with the Nimbus label began in 1987 with an album of Mendelssohn Piano Sonatas. A Brahms recital at Wigmore Hall followed in 1993. Over time his Nimbus discography expanded beyond fifty releases, encompassing complete surveys of keyboard music by Debussy, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Brahms, Percy Grainger, Erich Korngold, and Federico Mompou. Although most of his recordings featured solo repertoire, many listeners first encountered him through the soundtrack to the film Howard’s End. Jones also helped restore interest in Carlos Guastavino (1914–2000) and promoted contemporary British and Irish composers, notably devoting a five-disc set on the Lyrita label in 2019 to the music of composer-pianist Alan Richardson. During the COVID-19 pandemic he continued working for Nimbus, Lyrita, and Resonus Classics, issuing two albums of serialist Elisabeth Lutyens’s works on the latter imprint. In 2023 he released a further Resonus recording of piano-and-orchestra pieces by Lutyens, Errollyn Wallen, and Elizabeth Maconchy with the BBC Concert Orchestra. At that point his total output exceeded eighty discs.