New & Historical Recordings

Tim Page, the chief music critic for The Washington Post and the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Distinguished Criticism in 1997, writes: "This collection of new and historic recordings pays tribute to a great man, one who never let his hard-won artistic distinction eclipse his personal duties as a fellow human being. After all these years, it is a wonderful thing to be able to spend more time in the company of Charles Jones. Jones adapted his Five Melodies for Violin and Piano from an earlier set of Five Melodies for Orchestra (1945), and it is a mark of the composer's sure sense of economy that he was able to make such a seamless reduction, without a wasted or extraneous note. One of the delights of this recording is the opportunity to hear Jones' Piano Sonata No. 2 played by William Masselos. Indeed, composer and pianist seem to have been made for each other. And then we have the Symphony No. 3, composed in 1962, and recorded by the brilliant young conductor, Michael Adelson (who has shown a welcome devotion to Jones' music) in 1993. Here - finally! - we have the opportunity to hear one of Jones' major orchestral works on record."