Richard WILSON
Affirmations - fl, cl, vn, vc, pf
Intercalations - piano
Civilization and its Discontents - tuba
Transfigured Goat - mezzo, bar, cl, piano
 Mary Anne Hart (mezzo) Richard Lalli (bar) Allen Blustine
(cl) Richard Wilson (pno)
ALBANY TROY389 [65.39]
Amazon
US
I reviewed Wilson's first collection six months back and am glad to hear
more. He is a Cleveland-born composer and clearly no self-publicising braggart
but a serious composer with a glint of humour in his eyes.
Affirmations wings its jazzy non-tonal way with much troubled and irate music
switching occasionally into a grumbling trudge. The piano work Intercalations
takes us through a Betelgeuse-like spatial pilgrimage, a scuttling interplay,
a rustling and sidling waltz and a sense of unease. Civilization and its
Discontents is the most lyrical piece on the disc and the 'singer' is the
solo tuba. Its chesty warble offset by the metallic click of the keys tracks
its way through music of impulses thwarted and aggressions repressed but
concludes with music bobbing and shuffling along. Wilson has a considerable
sense of humour as is evident from his liner notes. Transfigured Goat sounds
like nothing so much as a slightly updated version of Samuel Barber's A Hand
of Bridge. It has the same sense of psychological counterpoint. The music
is barbed and stabbing, well sung, fast and sinuous and peppered with a sour
harmonic decay.
To be welcomed by the adventurous explorer.
Rob Barnett
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