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Martin Jones performs Percy Grainger’s ‘Country Gardens’



Martin Jones’ recording of the complete Grainger piano music can be purchased, with free UK P&P, here: http://bit.ly/1psKbP3

Martin Jones performs Percy Grainger’s arrangement of the English folk song ‘Country Gardens’. Recorded at The Nimbus Foundation concert hall at Wyastone Leys on 16 November 1997.

Martin Jones’ recording of Grainger piano favourites can be purchased, with free UK P&P, here: http://bit.ly/1fqWy5j

Edited and produced at Wyastone Leys, the home of Nimbus Records.

© 2014 Wyastone Estate Ltd.

http://www.wyastone.co.uk

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36 Comments

  1. Used to use Country Gardens as a test of technique. Don't play it too often; then you dust it off and gauge your maximum tempo before the mistakes start to creep in – missed or slurred passing notes in the right hand and bad jumps in the left. It's playful nature makes it just that little bit less agonizing than doing it with Chopin and Czerny studies. Problem comes when age degrades it all for you, especially in the left hand. But Grainger had a dazzling technique, didn't he; a 20th century Liszt, perhaps?

  2. How wonderful to play like Martin Jones. I have tried (tried mine you) this Percy Grainger arrangement. I think Grainger must have had quite a large hand judging by some of the chords. Seems not to bother Mr. Jones one bit. Bravo.

  3. Love this, because it was played for me by my mother. She was taught by her mother (a virtuoso pianist) and it was the only piece she really learned. I just heard it on an episode of Midsomer Murders and tried to find it – with no luck because I thought it was called "Garden Party." Then I found Musipedia, and searched using the "melodic contour method," which consists of listing subsequent notes as up, down, or repeat. BINGO. So glad to have found this lovely reminder of my Mom, who passed away at 90 in 2013. Thank you.

  4. I remember there was a song based on this – Jimmie Rogers, "In an English Country Garden" – we had a copy of the record when I was a child and I remember my mother used to sing "Buttercups and roses hanging from our noses…"

  5. Not one take; who knows how many tries it took him to get it "right". Too loud. It's country gardens, not the corn dog stand at the county fair. Maybe if we locked up pompous musicians for musical malpractice, they might emerge with a different grasp of their material. I say convict him of gross mischief, and put him out with a hurdy-gurdy and a not very sympathetic monkey to try to convince actual people he deserves more than to live with his monkey under a bridge.

  6. I have the piano sheet music, Copyright, 1919-1932. Set for 2 pianos, 4 hands. It’s too difficult for me to play but I love to read and follow along while hearing others play it. 🙂

  7. This music appeared in an episode of Dad's Army- The Test (a cricket match between the Platoon and the Wardens) which the Platoon won, by the way. Whenever I hear Country Gardens I think about Alan Titchmarsh!

  8. I love this piece because my sweet best friend played it for me as a dedication and still brings bliss to me ❤

  9. This is a delightful arrangement of a delightful piece. I’ve heard that Grainger would say “dished up for piano.”

    It always puts a smile on my face.

    Thank you posting it.

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