Brian Wilson (1 June 1941 – 1 December 2021)
An appreciation by John Quinn

All of us at MusicWeb International were greatly saddened by the death of Brian Wilson at the beginning of December. His passing, which was completely unexpected, came after a short illness.

It is one of the peculiar features of working for MusicWeb that many of us never get to meet each other. That’s because we live not just all over the UK but also in various countries around the world. I’ve been writing for the site for some 20 years now but in that time, I’ve met only a small number of my colleagues. Most of the others I know only through email exchanges. So it was with Brian. We often exchanged emails but I never had the pleasure of meeting him because I live in Gloucester whereas he divided his time between his London home and the apartment in the New Forest which he and his wife Margaret used as a bolt hole. We hoped to meet up at the Tallis Scholars’ 2000th concert in London in September 2015 but though both of us were present – and Brian reviewed it for Seen and Heard with his customary perception and depth of knowledge – he had to leave quickly after the concert and we missed each other in the crowd. Ironically, one of my colleagues who did get to meet Brian was one who lived at a considerable distance from the UK. In 2019, our webmaster, David Barker, and his wife Elaine visited the UK from their home in New Zealand and one stop on their travels was in the New Forest where they met Brian and Margaret; David recalls a very pleasant dinner.

Despite never actually meeting Brian, however, I felt I got to know him reasonably well through his writings and through our correspondence. I’m most grateful, though, to Brian’s niece, Hannah Parker, who has filled in some gaps in my biographical knowledge of Brian. It is also thanks to Hannah that we have the charming picture of her uncle that accompanies this appreciation.

Brian was born in Lancashire. I knew that he read English, at St Catherine’s College; what I didn’t know until Hannah told me, was that Brian subsequently gained a diploma in Psychological Testing. Brian spent his working life teaching English in state schools, eventually becoming a Deputy Head. Hannah told me that he was passionate about his teaching, even with the more difficult pupils – that passion occasionally came through in comments in emails he sent me. He also learned Greek, of which more later. In retirement, Brian concentrated on his music reviews, greatly to the benefit of MusicWeb.

Brian was one of the leading contributors to MusicWeb. Over the years he wrote countless individual reviews of recordings. However, arguably his greatest legacy is the extensive series of Download Roundup articles that he contributed over the years. I knew there were a lot of them but even I was astonished to learn from David Barker that we have published no fewer than 177 of these since 2008. Brian was busily engaged on his writings right to the end of his life, and it was only last month that his last report appeared: a roundup of Christmas releases, new and old. The sheer industry required to produce these roundups should not be underestimated. Many of us include in our reviews references to past recordings of the same music and, where appropriate, links to previous MusicWeb reviews of relevant recordings. I venture to suggest, though, that no one was more assiduous at doing this than Brian. His reviews and roundups were peppered with references to other recordings, all of which showed the depth and breadth of his knowledge of the recorded repertoire, acquired over a lifetime of listening to music. These references to other recordings were invaluable in setting the recording under review into context. That was a great help in guiding readers make an informed choice. There was never a sense of showing off when Brian provided all these cross references. He saw it as an essential part of the service he provided to readers that he should give them as full a picture as possible of the recording so that they could make a purchase decision

Brian assisted his readers in another very important way. Not content with passing informed comment on the recordings, Brian invariably provided guidance as to the availability of the downloads, pointing out the various formats in which the recordings could be downloaded and, crucially, providing price comparisons so that readers could know what represented best value.

We have comparatively few MusicWeb reviewers who listen to music in download form. That’s not because we’re reluctant to embrace new technology in the way that Brian did. Rather, I suspect that most of my colleagues, like me but unlike Brian, don’t have their computer linked to their hi-fi, so it’s not really possible to do proper justice to the audio quality of the recordings. However, during 2021 a number of new reviewers have joined us – all valuable additions to our team. These newcomers are all download reviewers. Brian enthusiastically took responsibility for welcoming them, inducting them into the ways of presenting reviews. Crucially, with characteristic generosity he made use of the connections he had fostered over the years with recording companies and distributors so that his expanded team could have the necessary press access to recordings.

Those label connections were invaluable and had been built up by Brian through his diligence throughout his time with MusicWeb. Since he was our principal download contact with the labels, we’ve notified them of Brian’s passing and a great number have responded, expressing sadness and also appreciation of all the work that Brian had done over the years. Brian always set very high standards in his writing and the representative of one leading label, after expressing his condolences, commented affectionately and with his tongue firmly in his cheek, “we might now be able to get away with the odd Latin translation infelicity, or the occasional mis-allocation of 16^th-century diocesan responsibility.”

That comment speaks to Brian’s depth of knowledge. Over the years, he and I reviewed – quite independently of each other – a number of the same recordings. In particular, we both reviewed the exceptional series of Tallis Scholars recordings of the Masses by Josquin des Prés, the last of which appeared at the end of 2020. Brian’s review of the final release in the series was a classic example of his style and expertise. We never conferred about these recordings – or indeed, any of the other recordings that we jointly covered - but we usually reached similar conclusions. I was never under any illusions, though. I approached the Tallis Scholars’ discs as a generalist listener; Brian was the subject matter expert, thanks to a lifetime’s experience in listening to Renaissance church music. Indeed, Brian was one of our foremost reviewers when it came to Renaissance and Baroque music, but his tastes and knowledge ranged much more widely. Frequently his Download Roundups included well-informed judgements on other genres of music, right up to twentieth-century repertoire. A good example of the range of his reviewing activities is a review which he wrote in 2014 concerning a disc of music by the contemporary Finnish composer, Kalevi Aho, including a concerto for Theremin – typically, Brian was insistent that the instrument’s name ought to begin with a capital ‘T’ – and Chamber Orchestra. The review is another choice example of Brian’s style and thoroughness. It also shows plainly the wide range of his musical sympathies and his willingness to listen with an open ear.

His depth of knowledge extended far beyond music, though. He was very widely read, as befitted someone who made his career in teaching English. His expertise extended to other languages too. He was extremely well versed in Latin and Greek. In addition, our colleague Göran Forsling says that Brian could understand a little Finnish and Swedish – how many English people can make such a claim? Our colleague, Paul Corfield Godfrey is a composer who has written a significant corpus of operas based on the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Some of these have been recorded in recent years and Brian was quick to review them. Paul said “I recall with particular delight his review a couple of years ago of my The Children of Húrin in which, ranging over a wide field of scholarship, he employed probably more Anglo-Saxon vocabulary that has ever been included in the course of a single review of a musical work! He will be sorely missed.” As you can see, Brian’s review displays significant literary as well as musical knowledge. I doubt that any of the rest of us could have appraised Paul’s opera in such illuminating depth.

Typically, it was Brian who solved a conundrum for us in 2019. Len Mullenger was profoundly stirred by a video recording of Salome by Richard Strauss and wrote a detailed appraisal of the production and performance. However, Len was stumped by an image projected onto the back wall of the stage at one point – the image is reproduced here. As Len reminded me: “We enter the final scene of totally deranged horror but instead of the head she desires she only receives Jochanaan’s torso. She is not able to kiss his mouth but she can climb and sit on his torso and plants her crown on the stump. She is now an unstable psychopath whose only fate is to be destroyed. On the wall at the back of the stage large gold letter have been spelling out Iω ΠρO.

This had really puzzled us but Brian cracked it: Iω ΠρO for Ió[annés] pro[phétés], John the prophet. The other letters were gradually removed leaving just ω symbolising the End for Salome.” Away from MusicWeb, Len has a great interest in antiquarian books, a subject on which he has given a number of talks. He recalls that Brian was a frequent source of assistance with Latin and Greek translations.

I think we can fairly describe Brian as a Renaissance Man.

Brian has made a huge contribution to MusicWeb. His erudition, stylish writing, attention to detail, enthusiasm for music and his sheer industry will be greatly missed. We mourn the loss of a highly valued colleague. Above all, though, everyone at MusicWeb sends sincere condolences to his wife Margaret and to Brian’s family.

John Quinn

The index to Brian's Download Roundups can be found here