Young pianist John Wilson has chosen an interesting blend of 20th-century American piano music for his solo debut release on Avie. He brings a wide spectrum of touch and dynamics to the three quasi-improvisatory tableaux of Michael Tilson Thomas, which lend their collective title – Upon Further Reflection – to the album. The final piece, ‘You Come Here Often?’, dedicated incidentally to Yuja Wang, displays extraordinary rhythmic élan.

While few would argue that Earl Wild had a special way with Gershwin, I am not convinced that the Seven Virtuoso Études are heard to their best advantage as a set, rather than as individual numbers. In the aggregate, the languid arpeggios of the first five songs tend towards the soporific. Fortunately, ‘I got rhythm’ and ‘Fascinatin’ rhythm’ provide peppy antidotes at the end of the series.

Aaron Copland’s Piano Sonata, commissioned by the playwright Clifford Odets, is generally regarded, along with the Piano Variations and Piano Fantasy, as the composer’s most important work for the instrument. Wilson approaches the sonata with an appealing gravity and circumspection, yet a certain underlying rhythmic licence deprives the piece of some of its innate cohesion and trenchancy. Performances by Robert Weirich (Albany), Leo Smit (Sony, 6/81) and Leon Fleischer (Sony) are among those highly regarded.