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Martin Jones' Debussy Cycle on Nimbus · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:06
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  A subscriber asked me if I would consider devoting
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  a... podcast episode to the Welsh pianist Martin
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  Jones, and in particular, his complete cycle
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  of Debussy's solo piano music for the Nimbus
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  label. So I thought that would be a good idea.
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  What can one say about Martin Jones, who turned
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  85 in February 2025? He has been one of the Nimbus
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  label's Output is awesomely immense, to say the
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  least. He's done complete cycles of solo piano
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  works by Mendelssohn, by Brahms, by Szymanowski,
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  Korngold, Monpeau, Percy Granger. He's done reams
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  of Spanish music, tons of British and Welsh contemporary
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  music. Somehow he hasn't yet done the complete...
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  Beethoven and Mozart cycles, or at least I don't
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  know about it if he's done that. But my God,
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  you know, there is so much music, and he has
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  such a Catholic and wide -ranging repertoire.
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  It's an immense discography, and it's really
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  pretty consistent artistically. Now, the only...
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  issue though that some collectors will have about
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  these recordings has to do with the heavily reverberant
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  sonics, which the label calls ambiosonics, which
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  is basically surround sound. It's a rather soft
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  focus sonic conception, very spacious sounding,
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  totally the opposite of close micing. For me,
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  it often depends on the repertoire. In Debussy's
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  case, the extreme recording philosophy and pronounced
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  reverberation in these recordings, I think works
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  to a certain degree because As you know, Debussy
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  conceived of his keyboard music as being played
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  on a piano without hammers or words to that effect.
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  So that said, there's a lot to savor in Martin
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  Jones' Debussy cycle. And by the way, these Martin
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  Jones cycles were... offered by Nimbus in super
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  inexpensive box sets years ago. I remember you
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  could find this five disc Debussy cycle for something
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  like $18 at the old Tower Records. And a lot
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  of Nimbus boxes, a lot of these super budget
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  Nimbus boxes got shoved onto the market in 1997.
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  And I vaguely remember writing an extremely general
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  encapsulated type of review in an overview of
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  the series. I think I did this for Gramophone.
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  In this series, you had things like the Vlado
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  Perlmutter Chopin box, the complete Beethoven
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  sonatas with Bernard Roberts. I know I did definitely
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  cover the Martin Jones Brahms and Granger and
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  Mendelssohn and Debussy cycles. So because of
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  this subscriber's suggestion, I started to revisit
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  the Debussy cycle. And I'll comment on certain
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  portions of it. I won't talk about the whole
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  thing. really struck me. Like the Images, book
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  one and two, these are stately and serious performances,
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  but very beautiful in terms of care over voicing
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  and timing. And by contrast, the outer movements
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  of the Eton suite are relatively animated, but
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  also texturally quite clear and three -dimensional.
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  And Martin Jones is one of the few pianists who
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  doesn't round off. the way so many pianists do.
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  So you really get the sense of metric modulation
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  that you hear in gamelan ensembles. His Debussy
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  etudes are very well done, especially the first
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  one for the five fingers. The etude in fourths
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  is wonderful. The etude in sixths, maybe, that's
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  a little literal, and it's not so sexy as I normally
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  like it to sound. But what a fabulous mad dash
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  through the etude for the eight fingers. That's
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  a marvelous performance, and a very colorful
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  one at that. gorgeous atmosphere Martin Jones
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  creates in the etude number 10 for opposing sonorities.
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  I've always thought that this introspective etude
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  is Debussy's most profound piano piece, and I
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  don't say that lightly, but I've studied this
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  piece, and I've performed it, and I've really
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  thought about this carefully, and I truly think
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  it's quite profound. So let's talk about the
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  preludes books one and two. The atmospheric preludes
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  go very well, as you would expect. And, you know,
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  that sonorous haze kind of fits the music. Although
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  I think after a while, I think with the sonic
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  ambience, I get a little bit fatigued. You know,
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  I can only listen to so much at one time. But
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  in the preludes, I was especially... surprised
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  and pleased by Martin Jones in his rather brisk
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  treatment of prelude number four in book one.
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  Did I pronounce that halfway decently? Probably
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  not. But what is interesting about his performance
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  is that his basic pulse brings out the music's
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  feeling of being a saraband. He doesn't, you
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  know, moon over it. It's really very straightforward
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  and rhythmic. But by contrast, he holds back
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  the interrupted serenade a little bit. That's
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  Prelude No. 9, Book 1. But this measured tempo
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  gives the repeated notes much more time to breathe
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  and take on a really convincing lilt. And as
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  a consequence, those big dynamic outbursts have
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  a really weighty impact. If you play this piece
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  too fast, you wind up having to shoehorn all
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  of the details within each measure as if you're
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  chasing the metronome. Similarly, the slight
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  hesitancies in General Levine, eccentric in book
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  two, I think bring out the quirky asymmetry of
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  Debussy's cakewalking in this piece. And speaking
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  of cakewalks, in The Children's Corner, Martin
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  Jones plays the gollywog's cakewalk with some
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  real fancy footwork. And all the various short
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  pieces benefit from this pianist's care and thoughtful
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  detailing. I also should mention that he gives
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  excellently played solo piano versions of three
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  orchestral ballets, Jeu, Comma, and La Boite
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  à Joujou. So, if you can deal with that... kind
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  of wrong end of the telescope sonic philosophy
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  that's typical of Nimbus piano recordings, I
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  would seriously check out Martin Jones' Debussy
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  Cycle. But if you want more conventional modern
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  -day sonics, then I would recommend the Debussy
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  cycles from Jean -Eflamme Bavouzé on Chandos
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  or Alain Planet on Harmonia Mundi, if you can
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  still find that. And then there's one special
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  favorite of mine. It's the Debussy cycle by Martino
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  Tirimo. It was originally issued by Collins Classics
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  and more recently reissued by Musical Cut. concepts.
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  This is a real sleeper of a Debussy cycle, and
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  I should talk about it in a future podcast episode.
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  So do investigate Martin Jones and his Debussy
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  cycle with all of my sonic caveats, of course.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings, and I look forward to being
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  with you for our next episode. Take good care.