A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Richard Wilson is the composer of more than 70 works, an oeuvre that comprises every genre, including opera. The four works recorded here draw a pleasant profile of a free-minded composer who follows his own middle way, neither openly avant-garde nor strictly conservative. The bold Symphony No. 1 (1984) is in turn reminiscent of Berg, Schoenberg, Dallapiccola, and perhaps Copland and Dutilleux, but keeps a distinguished, personal accent all along, underlined by thick chromatic harmonies. Broad gestures oppose the different orchestral families and alternate with chamber music-like episodes. The four movements, subtitled Preparation-Action-Contemplation-Reaction, astutely reproduce the traditional symphonic form, with a scherzo and a slow movement in second and third positions. Under James Sedares, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra plays with enough energy to compensate for minor flaws in ensemble precision.
Gnomics (1981), for flute, oboe, and clarinet, displays good-humored polyphonic embroidery within a highly chromatic fabric, while Tribulations (1988) is a set of light-hearted songs for voice and piano. The mezzo Mary Ann Hart and the composer himself at the piano wittily reveal the deep irony of these miniatures. Wilson returns to a more “serious” genre in the Viola Sonata (1989), written in a lyrical, meditative, almost Gallic vein, perfectly caught by the excellent Misha Amory and Blanca Uribe. On my copy, a few loud spots of the horns in the symphony are disfigured by saturation.
