Customer Reviews

Percy Grainger: The Complete Piano Music

5 star:		(3)
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A super budget 5 CD collection of all of Grainger's Piano music.
Every last note!
The shipping alone would be $17.00+ for the 5 individual Cds.
Englishman Martin Jones plays these as if he wrote them. He is thoroughly inside this music.
I think his best work to date.
He is joined on CD #5 by Richard Mcmahon and Phillip Martin. Where they rollick in various combos and trios on 1, 2 and 3 pianos. This is exhilerating. Especially on an truly uplifting version of Green Bushes.
The entire set is strongly idiomatic and given a clear, crisp, warm and spacious recording. FIRST CLASS sound.
There are too many highlights to single out, but the In A Nutshell Suite and Green Bushes are especially GOOD!
There is not a bad note or "vibe" on any of these CDs.
Highly recommended for Granger fans and fans of English Piano Music.

These are fabulous recordings of Percy Grainger's works for piano and I would recommend this to anyone interested in Grainger. The 5 cds are offered at an excellent value and well worth the money spent.

Having just dug this out of my collection and listened to it for the first time in a few years I must say that it was just as enjoyable as when I first heard it. No need to speak much of Grainger's music: it is simply beautiful and wonderfully evocative. What needs to be said is how Jones captures the soul of Grainger so marvelously. As with his brilliant recordings of the complete works of Granados (also available on Nimbus and well worth seeking out: Granados: The Complete Piano Music) he seems to form a spiritual bond with the composers whose music he performs. There is no disconnect between performer and composer with Jones. I suppose that that is why he is a completist. He looks at the music like a biographer, with the same sense of totality and nuance. For Jones, to leave out a single piece would be like leaving out an event in the life he is documenting. One does get the sense that it could be Grainger himself performing these works.

Well, enough said. These are essential recordings of sublime music and cheers to Nimbus for making them available at such a reasonable price.