A pianist distinguished in both classical and contemporary jazz idioms, Stefano Battaglia shares his breadth of interests with the late American composer Alec Wilder. On this album he engages with four of Wilder’s popular songs and three settings of poems, which he called “art songs”. Musically, there’s little difference between the two, since Wilder’s melodic obliqueness and fastidious touch are unmistakable in both. Battaglia’s trio catches the mood of the pieces very well, building a little atmospheric world around each with their improvisations. Interestingly, the two most impressive are art songs, settings of Christina Rossetti and WB Yeats. It’s as though a faint echo of the words lingers at the edges of the purely instrumental performance.
