All we know about Richard Jones is that he was an accomplished violinist in London, who started leading the Drury Lane Orchestra in 1730. The only notice of his death was an obituary that appeared in a local newspaper in 1744. He produced two collections of sonatas for violin and basso continuo, and this volume of harpsichord works dated 1732. he American harpsichordist Mitzi Meyerson, after brilliant forays into the music of Claude-Bénigne Balbastre and Gottlieb Muffat, now presents for the first time a complete recording of Jones’ Suits or Setts of Lessons for the Harpsicord or Spinnet (sic), a collection of pieces which is English Baroque at its finest. This music was much loved when it was composed, but could not compete with Georg Friedrich Handel’s ovewhelming popularity in England at the time, a fact which caused Jones and many of his English-born contemporaries to virtually disappear in the shadows. Meyerson, in the interview included in the booklet, mentions that in the compositions of Richard Jones she hears “many influences - the depth of Johann Sebastian Bach, the wildness of Vivaldi, and the fresh tunefulness of Purcell”. A great discovery which deserves being enjoyed by all lovers of Baroque keyboard music.
