Conrad Wilson
Witty and wide-ranging music critic who wrote with equal passion about travel, food and wine
CONRAD WILSON, who has died aged 85, was music critic of The Scotsman from 1963 to 1991, although his influence stretched south of the border; his writing was invariably meticulous, often racy, witty and full of quick-minded observations.
Some found him to be harsh; if so, it was born of passion and knowledge. He could be intentionally ambiguous. One review of a composer’s new work noted how, “in his own way, [Ronald] Stevenson has always stood out from the crowd and has written something nobody else would dare to”.
Wilson did not confine himself to Scottish artists, or to musicians. He met Judy Garland at the Savoy, lunched with Alec Guinness at the actor’s expense at Wheeler’s, spent a morning with Muriel Spark in Peckham and quizzed Pierre Monteux about conducting the premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Michael Tippett gave him a guided tour of Bath, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears discussed with him the acoustics at Haddo House in Aberdeenshire, and Carlo Maria Giulini shed gentle tears over breakfast while discussing the beauty of Monteverdi’s madrigals.
He was in his element during the Edinburgh Festival, reviewing morning concerts, racing back to The Scotsman’s office for a festival lunch overseen by Alastair Dunnett, the editor, and then heading to another concert in the evening.
Wilson was close to many of those whose work he reviewed, not least Alexander Gibson, the conductor and founder of Scottish Opera, whose authorised biography he wrote in 1993. But he could be irascible, and when Scottish Opera, tiring of a succession of negative reviews, placed an advertisement in The Scotsman contrasting his comments with more favourable ones from rival critics, he stopped reviewing the company’s performances.
Conrad Keith Marr Wilson was born in Edinburgh on November 7 1932, the only son of Norman, who worked in publishing, and his wife Joan (née Hunter). He was educated, unhappily he said, at Daniel Stewart’s College, Edinburgh, where he accompanied the choir and played the organ in chapel. From there he was apprenticed to the Evening Dispatch in Edinburgh.
Called up for National Service in 1955, he served with the RAF in Staffordshire, being spared the assault course to play piano for a local Gilbert and Sullivan society production of The Mikado starring several senior officers. He then accepted a post at SHAPE headquarters near Paris.
Returning to Edinburgh, Wilson was not only music critic, but also film critic and art critic for the Dispatch – despite still being a trainee. Soon he was recruited to write sleeve notes for Philips records, but complained that it was not a job for an objective critic: “Even the most minor concertos had to be extolled as masterpieces.”
After a spell preparing radio news scripts for the BBC, he joined The Scotsman’s office in Fleet Street as cultural correspondent. In 1963 he was offered the post of music critic, “the one which, since my schooldays, I had always yearned for”.
After eventually parting company with The Scotsman, Wilson resurfaced at The Herald. He wrote several more books, including histories of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Perth Festival, a biography of Puccini and a series called Notes on…, recommending 20 works by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.
He played the piano almost to the end of his life, and wrote with equal passion about travel, food and wine; all three were combined in Where to Eat Well in Scotland, published in 1988.
In 1961 he married Ruth Wood. The marriage was dissolved and in 1995 he married Sue Tocher, whose mother had married Wilson’s father. She survives him with their three daughters, as well as a son and a daughter from his first marriage.
Conrad Wilson, born November 7 1932, died November 17 2017