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: 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: bit.ly/1fqWy5j
Edited and produced at Wyastone Leys, the home of Nimbus Records.
© 2014 Wyastone Estate Ltd.
www.wyastone.co.uk
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[@michaelgouda305]

I love this piece. I remember when I was about 13/14 years old (I am now 84) and on my mother’s insistence, I played it in front of the Dowager Countess of Mexborough while on holiday at the Torcross Hotel, Devon. I managed it - just and without too many wrong notes to universal acclaim. I don’t thing I have touched the piano since.

[@MrIvorfan]

Played for the dowager Countess of Mexborough! I bet you have been able to dine out on that anecdote for the rest of your life! It must have been quite some honour!

[@1391knug]

My father used to play this piece. I come from England and I am now 89. Last night it came to me in a dream, and I was playing it!

[@idunno6844]

84?!

[@philipernstzen7702]

I should think that you haven't touched the piano since is our collective loss, my regards Sir.

[@catherinesyme901]

Oh bless! ❤️🇳🇿

[@lindamanas954]

Love Martin Jones. So clear, cheerful and precise. The best player of Grainger by far

[@yuenkentsang9446]

So amazing to watching him play.

[@jerseygma]

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.

[@catherinesyme901]

🙏❤️🕯🕊🇳🇿

[@jguenther3049]

My mother used to play this, too. She'd perform it on our Sohmer, a long time ago. She lived to be a few weeks short of 98.

[@AnAmericanComposer]

Gotta love Grainger, with all of his screwed up nature and comical music, he's truly a revolutionary of the twentieth century. Love this recording, too!

[@earlarchibaldcampbellofarg2875]

Hey! You have that extremely popular recording of Vivaldi's four seasons on here! Right?

[@AnAmericanComposer]

Why yes I do! I take it you like the channel?

[@earlarchibaldcampbellofarg2875]

+AnAmericanComposer Subscribed and waiting for the next video. ;-)

[@stampbdp]

AnAmericanComposer u

[@AnAmericanComposer]

stampbdp no u

[@johnrogers5399]

I'm English living in France. This reminds me if my very deep roots! Great👏

[@ferguscullen8451]

Jones brings out inner voices in a very nice way. (I mean the counterpoints for "alto" and "tenor," so to speak.) This piece asks a fair bit of every finger, but he plays with real ease and grace.

[@luminousraven4970]

SPARKLING, VERSION! ... There is so much pure OPTIMISM jumping out wih every note! BravooooooooOOOOooooOOOooOOOooooooo !!!

[@TheFolkRevivalProject]

How about the original version, by traditional folk performer William Kimber. kzbin.info/www/bejne/en-4halrjq2NpZY Cecil Sharp collected it from Kimber and Grainger took it from Sharp's notes. Kimber later recorded the tune.

[@rosswheeler]

My father used to play this song.

[@someguyspage1809]

So did my mom.

[@crazyorganist1609]

Love Martin Jones playing this. Such fun

[@keybawd4499]

What a wonderful pianist Martin Jones is. When I tuned into the radio many decades ago I heard a Mendelssohn song without words. It was sublime playing. Who was it? Martin Jones. Since then I have listened out for him and have heard glorious performances by him - on radio and on disk. (BTW I have the complete Grainger.) A superb musician and a musician with perfect control as a pianist.

[@dorfone]

This was the theme song for a radio show on gardening here in Canada. It was back in the 1950s and 1960s and aired on the CBC. Not sure what the actual name of the radio show was now. It was a long time ago.

[@gorak9000]

CBC Radio One in Manitoba had a gardening call in show at noon on Fridays in the summer (maybe still does) - this was the theme

[@trevorcorso473]

I heard this on the radio at my uncle's farm in New Brunswick 60-65 years ago. I went there every summer as a boy.

[@karinblundell596]

Kindergarten of the Air, a CBC show for children, used this music as its theme song,

[@bensiciliano866]

Bravo!!! Marvelously spirited playing with superb tonal balance. I treasure the recordings Mr. Jones has made over the years - his Szymanowski is especially wonderful!

[@sr6154]

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..."

[@RhiannaBarr]

Actually it was the other way around. This one was based on an old English folksong "In An English Country Garden"

[@hoverbovver1976]

I listen to this song when I mow my lawn.

[@jean-paul7251]

Piano hero! Martin ...Great playing

[@davidfooterman6515]

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?

[@May1south]

I've bvecome addicte to "Country Gardens" and Martin Jones's performance of Grainger's arrangement.

[@Itssnailyy]

I have to play this as my solo for solo and ensemble

[@thatcheetopup]

Same what instrument did you do?

[@Itssnailyy]

I play alto sax but my band teacher is putting me on tenor because our trombone section sucks lol

[@jeffreybridge4571]

Incredible!!!

[@levicopp3224]

This music worked well ( slower tempo) for grands battlements when accompanying ballet classes

[@jasonwall6991]

Enjoyed this very much.

[@yuenkentsang9446]

I love piano

[@WPGS25041941]

A nice melody to introduce the Archers on Radio 4 BBC UK

[@dalcassian8351]

Amazing pianist

[@yuenkentsang9446]

Oh my god it is so funny and amazing. I love him

[@morhywaden]

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.

[@goosecouple]

Finally I have found this song's name !

[@scdoty777]

Beautiful

[@elliebolger5541]

Excellent, wonderful. Tku. Ellie

[@jatriggs]

Try getting this tune out of your head;-) This is a very good version!

[@artsandstuff9159]

yup

[@ordoabchao6747]

Simply incredible

[@MoisesJimenezTorres]

Que hermosa musica

[@clray123]

He's playing it like a boss...

[@danidelyon7093]

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. :)

[@lululiu5860]

Beautiful.

[@LudsenMartinus]

Magnífico

[@lansu8915]

awesome!!

[@aidancameron5625]

Awesome piece

[@Offshoreorganbuilder]

Excellent.

[@josephinebuyante5195]

Wowwww nice....

[@micheleenleggett2497]

I love it very very much

[@adude394]

Having just come over here from a Brian Ferneyhough piece, this was exactly what I needed to reset my head! 👍

[@user-kc1yr8sk1o]

Nice! Ferneyhough sucks

[@adude394]

@@user-kc1yr8sk1o Yeah, he's definitely not to my taste. But I do have to say this: As a guy who has decades of experience as a music copyist, both with pen and ink and using Finale, I give Ferneyhough and other such composers credit for figuring out how to actually notate that stuff! (But I'll still take Brahms any day of the week.)

[@user-kc1yr8sk1o]

@@adude394 Dude, his work will soon be indistinguishable from AI-generated hypercomplexity. It's literally the monkeys and typewriters dilemma made manifest. Just dump some ink on 20 staves, think of a clever reference to classical literature and boom! Ferneyhough.

[@adude394]

@@user-kc1yr8sk1o Very well put. Love it!

[@martinlee5604]

This is surely where Russ Conway found inspiration for "Side Saddle"!

[@yuenkentsang9446]

fuckin ace love it

[@user-ys1oi4ik3l]

いいね

[@Handbasketification]

It is fun and easy to play.... if you play it slow like me :-P

[@julianamebane4421]

Rosemary B, I know what you mean! ;)

[@mastacheifa1182]

Or if you play it on a wind instrument

[@oneandrew7767]

Actually, I would prefer to hear it slowed down a little.

[@RhiannaBarr]

Based on an old English folksong appropriately titled "English Country Garden"

[@TheFolkRevivalProject]

If you want to hear the traditional performance that this piece is based on, have a look at this video I just uploaded! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aGqWl4idpt57d9k

[@nkAngelz]

and im here playing what sounds like a level 1 version

[@ur_LocalSwiftie413]

Ms shead sing that

[@MrFrameFrame]

Henry Miller took me here.

[@garrettdennis2365]

Smh you were supposed to use your fist on the 3rd to last measure lol

[@jordancampos6864]

This was a professional recording in a professional setting. I wouldn’t have used my fist. In any other circumstance, however, I would.

[@littlehelphere]

The muppet show brought me here.

[@jackielantern6]

littlehelphere Can you play hatless? I don't know, who wrote it?

[@yuenkentsang9446]

Shame i cant play piano

[@Roger__Wilco]

♫♫ What do you do if you want to do a poo in an English country garden? Pull down your pants and you fertilise the plants in an English country garden. ♫♫

[@Radiatoron88]

🎶 "Pull down your pants and you fertilise the plants in an English country garden." Run from the garden begging for a pardon, you popped on the royal primroses! 🎶

[@jonjamg]

Instruction for one note - Fist!

[@Radiatoron88]

Next instruction: hold hobbled fist in other hand and go to hospital.

[@goosecouple]

This songs comes out of a toy apple.

[@KatietheKreator]

Lol watch this at 2x speed

[@KatietheKreator]

DON’T watch this at 2x speed 😭😭😭

[@gordoncrook7507]

Why didn't the 24 odd bother to start in the first place listen to what They fancy not annoy us Gordon Exmouth

[@paulrandig]

It is almost as good as the version by Ralph and Fozzy Bear. But only almost 🙂

[@stace3037]

Don't bash the piano!

[@ShugaR_Automata]

The peice Percy Grainger hated the most