CDs with online ordering
James Iliff - Piano Music (PFCD278)
Performed by Martin Jones
1-8. Eight Short Pieces for Piano
I-5. Five Studies in Expression: Gaiety [00:51] Loneliness [00:59] Contentment [01:00] Cheek [00:51] Wonder [02:01]
6. Note Piece
[01:42] 7. Andante [01:05] 8. Allegretto [01:36]
9-10. Two Fugues for Keyboard
9. Fugue 1 [01:54] 10. Fugue 2 [04:49]
11-14. Piano Sonata
11. Tempo Poco Moderato [08:03] 12. Allegro [03:15] 13. Poco Lento [04:46] 14. Andantino [05:37]
15. J.S. Bach: Contrapunctus XIX from the Art of the Fugue (Completed by James Iliff) [11:08]
Total Time [50:49]
Credits
Recorded by Martin Levan at Red Kite Studio – assistant Andy Thomas
Cover design and layout based upon original by Cameron Steward at Two Duks Disco
Prima Facie Digipack Redesign by Simon Crosby Buttle
Photo of James Iliff by Mary Iliff
Photo of Martin Jones by Malcolm Crowthers
Cover picture: “February Alders” by James Iliff
We thank Martin Levan and his team at Red Kite Studio for their expertise and friendly co-operation.
James Iliff
James Iliff was born on the 4th of January, 1923, at Wolverhampton. He died on the 11th of July, 2014, at Cilycwm near Llandovery in Wales. James was a student at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1939 to 1945, studying composition under William Alwyn and piano with Harold Craxton. He was pianist for Glyndebourne Opera (1946 to 1947) and for the English Opera Group (1949 to 1951). James was a Fellow and Professor of Composition at the RAM (1957 to 1988) where he directed a Composition Class which explored basic elements of technique through workshop performance of individual workings of assignments that he would specify. Participants included composition students Christopher Brown, John Cardale, Janet Graham, Edward McGuire and William Moss. His students included Martin Jones and Stephen Robbings - both of whom have performed his piano music. He was a Senior Harmony Tutor at Morley College (1955 to 1988) where non-vocational students were encouraged to discover the function of harmony through composition. From the 1970s onwards, after moving to Wales, he took part with his wife Mary in local botanical studies, contributing records towards a Flora of Carmarthenshire. James also studied the Andean Opuntias and an annotated check-list by him was published in 2002. He was also a remarkable painter. However, throughout his working life he produced a steady stream of painstakingly created compositions which are now being placed in the British Music Collection. His archive is being sent to the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Martin Jones
Martin Jones was a chorister at Magdalene College School and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He 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, and ever since has been in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a prolific recording artist and his many discs for Nimbus Records include the complete solo piano works of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, and Stravinsky, and the sonatas of Alun Hoddinott. His performance repertoire, as well as encompassing most of the standard works for piano, also includes unusual concertos such as the Busoni Concerto. Martin Jones has given recitals throughout Great Britain, and as well as regular broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, he has given recitals for Brussels Radio, RTE in Dublin, DeutschlandRadio in Berlin and ABC in Australia.