Too tuneful for the classical avant-garde and too sophisticated for the pop crowd, mid-century American composer Alec Wilder was admired mainly by performers, especially singers, from Frank Sinatra to Eileen Farrell. As the suites, sonatas, and “mosaics” on this all- piano program reveal, Wilder had a compact sense of form and a generous gift for melody. He falls into that category of composer— Poulenc, Villa-Lobos, Bernstein, Arnold—who experimented with a bit of everything, came up with his own style, and wrote to please himself rather than institutions. John Noel Roberts plays with classical elegance and jazzy rhythmic freedom, ideal for this composer; the recorded sound is plush and inviting.