Ten: Memories for Solo Piano

The Ten title of this 2025 Silva Screen Records album refers to the fact that the pianist, Debbie Wiseman, has been composer-in-residence with the crossover Classic FM radio network for ten years. That may seem a substantial amount of time, but what is the network to do when its listeners voted her the most popular living composer? The pieces, chosen from her most successful works over the past decade, were written for larger groups, but in observance of the event, Wiseman decided to play them on the piano to "see what would happen." What happens is that her rather cinematic language (she has a background as a film and television composer) is reduced to a set of basic sentimental gestures. Consider "Aegeon Sea" (from The Mythos Suite); the spelling is original. It was written for an Ancient Greek-themed text featuring Stephen Fry as narrator, and it loses some impact on the piano alone. One might not guess the topics of these pieces on hearing them without their titles. On the other hand, much of Wisemans success is her undoubted ability to come up with sentiment-laden tunes that allow listeners to fill in their own feelings, and this is especially apparent in pieces like Elizabeth Remembered, written in memory of the late Queen Elizabeth II. The piano-dominated sound broadens out effectively with A Day May Come (Anthem for VE Day 80), the only vocal piece on the album, featuring the small vocal ensemble Voces8 and a text by poet Grahame Davies. Essentially, what one will think of this album depends on ones more general reaction to Wisemans pleasant crossover language, but one can hardly disagree with the listeners whove found that she executes this kind of language better than just about anybody else. The album made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2025. ~ James Manheim