James Wilson was born in England but has lived in Ireland for a number of years. His Menorah, in essence a viola concerto, commemorates the children who died in the Holocaust, while Pearl and Unicorn, a violin concerto, was suggested by a George Peele poem. The music is well constructed and well intentioned, but many listeners will find a dearth of likable features in Wilson’s dissonant, structurally vague, unmelodic style. Not that good tunes are a prerequisite for good music–far from it. But there’s little here that acts as a “hook” to listening: a gesture, idea, harmony, timbre, call it what you will. Nevertheless, the composer’s sincerity hardly seems to be in doubt, and the performances offer security as well as, one presumes, authenticity. Given the fact that the sound is quite a bit better than usual for recordings Marco Polo has made in Ireland, musically adventurous listeners interested in the music’s various sources of inspiration might find this disc interesting.
