Virtuoso Arrangements for piano by Earl Wild

Mention the pianist Earl Wild and you will conjure the term virtuoso, indeed, super-virtuoso. A pianist who in Liszt's definition is ''called upon to make emotion speak and weep and sigh. He creates passions he will call to light in all their brilliance...he will call up scent and blossom and breathe the breath of life.'' All in all a cornucopia of pianistic magic performed with grace, relish and fluency by Martin Jones, England's most recorded pianist. This second tribute follows his earlier disc of Earl Wild's Gershwin transcriptions. Wtih his own distinctive voice he nonetheless reminds me of a recital given by Wild in London in 1982. Writing of that occasion I told of how ''seemingly millions of notes sparkled and cascaded from those extraordinary fingers.'' Today, Martin Jones, like his predecessor, gives new meaning and a new lease of life to virtuosity, a tired term resurrected. (Bryce Morrison)