Czerny: Piano Sonatas Vol 1 / Martin Jones by Martin Jones (CD, Feb-2009, Nimbus)

After a rather slow start with the opening sonata, a piece with little to distinguish it, this CD really picks up with a group of works of stunning brilliance and inventiveness. Jones tosses off the formidable technical difficulties with aplomb and obvious enjoyment, and presents us with a program of very significant music that obviously stops just short of the acknowledged masterpieces of the repertoire. For a good idea of what was happening in music of this epoch outside of the supreme heights achieved by Beethoven, Schumann,and Chopin, yet with a richness all its own, you would do well to explore this disc.