The large scale and classically paced Piano Trio conveys a restless, spiky character, even in the quieter moments, which are energized by chromaticism. This 2002 composition shares something of that vigor with the Figuration for clarinet, cello, and piano, written over 20 years prior, but Wilson sounds more inspired by his choice of color and tonal blending in the earlier work, as well as the freedom of expression that the looser form allows. That sense is even more pronounced in the two works here for solo instruments. Diablerie, for solo violin, plays on the well-trod myth of the violin as the devil’s instrument. The dedicatee, Rolf Shulte, has great fun with this flamboyant showpiece. Lord Chesterfield to his Son, for solo cello, is the composer’s gift to his seven-year-old son as the boy began cello lessons in 1987. The movements are based on the admonitions delivered by Lord Chesterfield to his own son in the 18th century (they are worth repeating; “talk often but never long; be exact, clear and perspicuous; beware of digressions; mimicry is the lowest and most illiberal of all buffoonery; be silent upon your own subject; be seen to smile but never be seen to laugh; take care never to seem dark and mysterious.”) Wilson is, in the manner of the good Lord Chesterfield himself, a bit pompous in his musical declarations, but convincingly heartfelt and eloquent. The works for violin and piano and cello and piano fall somewhere in between Wilson’s freer and more formal styles, both displaying a Bartók-like acuity of expression.

Wilson’s cause is furthered immensely by the superb New York freelancers featured on this program. New music owes an immeasurable debt to these phenomenally gifted and generous artists, as any composer will tell you, including, I am sure, Richard Wilson.

Peter Burwasser, FANFARE