Renaissance Man
When John Wilson’s recording of Korngold’s Symphony in F sharp thundered out of its CD like a musical typhoon, I knew I’d found my personal record of the year. Few other conductors ‘get’ the sweep and bite of Korngold’s style to such a fine degree and the playing was simply awe-inspiring.
Meeting the British conductor after a recording session with the same orchestra – his newly convened Sinfonia of London (SoL) – it strikes me that his affinity with this highly controlled yet extraordinarily intense music is possibly no coincidence: Wilson is rather that way himself. ‘All the music we’re playing is greater than any performance of it can be, so the goals are always out of reach and we’re just striving,’ he tells me. ‘We felt that in particular in the Korngold Symphony: it was so demanding, and we’re just reaching as high as we can.’
John Wilson might be best known to the public thanks to his sell-out BBC Proms and tours bringing the golden age of MGM Hollywood musicals back to vivid life. Yet this is only one aspect of his rich and varied musical life, and rumours have abounded that he was about to
