Rick Wakeman | Melancholia

With Melancholia, Rick Wakeman completes a remarkable trilogy of solo piano works that began with Piano Portraits (2017) and continued with Piano Odyssey (2018) – both landmark albums that found him reaching new heights of popularity and critical esteem as a solo artist. But while those records looked outward, reinterpreting beloved melodies and exploring sweeping themes, Melancholia turns inward, inviting us into the most personal, introspective, and perhaps profound music of Wakeman’s storied career.

The album began, as so much of Wakeman’s finest work has, with a quiet moment at the piano. One afternoon, his wife Rachel overheard him playing a contemplative piece - what would later become “Garo” - and was struck by its quiet, emotional power. And because she knew well that he often turned to the piano in times of sadness or inner turbulence, using music as a kind of emotional compass, she encouraged him to share it.

What followed was not a conceptual record in the traditional sense, but a deeply cohesive suite, written intuitively at first and later shaped in collaboration with long-time producer and engineer Erik Jordan at The Granary Studio in Norfolk. Recorded on a beautiful Steinway Model D, the sound of Melancholia is rich, resonant, and stripped bare in the most delicate way.

Wakeman, of course, needs little introduction. A virtuoso keyboardist, composer, and arranger, he rose to fame with Yes, helping to define the sound of progressive rock and earning his place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His solo output spans over a hundred albums, from grand concept works to soundtracks and acoustic meditations. In 2021, he was awarded a CBE for services to music and broadcasting.