‘What do we do to keep sane?’ was the Covid lockdown’s big musical question. Bruce Wolosoff used this time to compose variations based on ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. Once he started, he couldn’t stop, and eventually wound up with around 175 variations. Eventually he pared them down to the 39 encompassing the present release. The first few variations are pure rock/blues piano, channelling Johnnie Johnson or Otis Spann. Vars 6 8 sound like Philip Glass writing for intermediate piano students.

With Vars 9 and 10 we enter ‘power chord’ territory, with more adventurous harmonies in store. Var 11 features a floating single-line left-hand accompaniment that evokes John Cage’s In a Landscape and Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, while Var 12 is modelled on the alternating-chord Var 2 from Beethoven’s Diabelli set. Similarly, Var 15 and the opening movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No 30, Op 109, appear to have been separated at birth. Basically Var 25 is simplified Messiaen. The sparse Var 38 iterates the theme in extreme registers, while Var 30 and the valedictory Var 39 use an obsessively pounded-out blues lick over boogie-woogie-ish broken left-hand octaves à la Jerry Lee Lewis. Many variations expand and contract beyond the limits of the theme’s square-cut binary form in how Wolosoff will stretch a few bars here, expand an ostinato there or perhaps conclude a variation without resolving it. I’m most moved by Var 27, where the composer paraphrases the theme as a plaintive major-key hymn tune.

In contrast to the epic journeys characterising Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Wolosoff’s variations are akin to a genial stroll in the park, where one encounters familiar and comfortable sights at unexpected junctures. Those who enjoy long walks, however, might petition Wolosoff to trot out all 175 variations. I, for one, would play them at the drop of a hat! More importantly, one readily perceives that Wolosoff’s eclectic bent arises from an authentic and sincere voice, rather than mere cleverness. This quality also informs his pianism. The booklet notes are taken up with a stimulating and refreshingly frank conversation between Wolosoff and the noted writer Tim Page.