Martin Jones - Discover the Piano Music of Daniel Jones (2022)

The process of writing any piece of music really is one of discovery and the feeling I always have is that what I’m setting myself to write already exists and that what I have to do is unveil it, discover it’. This characterisation by Daniel Jones of the creative process as one of exploration and excavation seems appropriate for a composer whose scores have a powerful sense of rightness and inevitability. His lifelong dedication to music meant that he was unwilling to compromise by diluting it with other work, such as teaching. When he was mischievously accused of never having had a proper job, his response was to tap his manuscript and reply, ‘This is a proper job’. In fact he undertook a wide variety of roles during his long life, as he once wryly observed: ‘my career has been a very complicated one. As a matter of fact, it’s a pity I was not divided into several people’.

In 2017 Martin Jones visited the National Library of Wales, and uncovered manuscript scores of these and many other piano works written by the young Dan Jones.

“The depth and range of the works presented on this release suggest that Jones was a natural composer for the piano and until his symphonic odyssey had begun, he used this medium, along with that of the string quartet, for some of his most profound utterances.”
– Paul Conway

“It was in 1972 that I first met Dan Jones, working with him on several occasions as Sharon McKinley and I prepared to give the first performance of a Cello Sonata the composer had written for us. At that time the sets of Bagatelles published by the University of Wales Press were the only piano music of his that I knew. I can remember asking him if he would write some new piano pieces. His reply was blunt - he was not interested in writing piano music, and had not written anything much in the past. My abiding memory of him is of someone very witty and genial, and just delighted to hear his music being played. Sadly we didn’t meet often after that, partly because he was very happy being rather isolated in his Swansea home, and partly because he did not have an academic post, and stayed away from the politics of the music departments in Wales.

“I had taken Dan’s dismissal of any piano music at face value, so was intrigued to find boxes of piano works by Daniel Jones listed in a catalogue of manuscripts held in the National Library Archive in Aberystwyth. In early 2017 Adrian Farmer and I went to look at these manuscripts, and were surprised to find so many complete works, including many fair copies in a neat hand clearly meant for performance and publication. They are all precisely dated, including the locations where they were completed. Some of them are even ‘fingered’, just as you would do if you were preparing to perform them yourself.

“I have no idea why Dan denied having written all this music. It was composed by someone who obviously played the piano extremely well (another hidden fact about him) but who, by 1950 had abandoned the piano completely. I can only suppose that WW2 caused a delay in these works being published. Then, after the war, the world’s musical language had moved on, as did Dan, now gripped with single-minded focus on writing Symphonies. There is one poignant handover between Dan’s youthful piano music and symphonic music: discovered in the Archive boxes were two movements of the 1st Symphony written out in piano score, (they feel like piano reductions) and where, briefly, the romantic language of his piano music meets the emerging gruffness of his symphonic works – and then is gone forever. I do hope these recordings and the publications that accompany them, will persuade pianists to include this important music in their programmes in the future.”
– Martin Jones, 2022

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 in Europe, Russia ,Australia, Canada, North & South America. He has made over 90 recordings with Nimbus Records exploring music that is not often played including the complete works of 18 composers. 2022 sees the release of 4 discs of newly discovered manuscripts of Daniel Jones. Also, together with Adrian Farmer, 3 discs of French music for 4 hands. During 2023, as well as giving concerts, he will complete 3 discs of the first recordings of all the piano works of Elizabeth Lutyens for Resonus Records, and continue his American Piano Series with Volumes 6 & 7 for Prova Recordings which will include several new works especially written for him, and, for Nimbus a collection of Brazilian music by Mignone, Gnatalli & Lorenzo-Fernandez.

Tracklist:

1. Prelude in D Minor
2. I. Allegro giocoso
3. II. Andante
4. III. Allegretto giocoso
5. Thema con variazioni in D-Flat Major
6. Legend
7. I. Tragico con moto
8. II. Thema con variazioni
9. III. Humoreske
10. Fantasia in E-Flat Minor for Piano Solo
11. Lento malinconico for Piano Solo