The pianist celebrates his birthday with a recital at Carnegie Hall. “That Mr. Wild can still play beautifully was clear during his recital in July at the Mannes College of Music. He was coming off quadruple-bypass surgery and operations on both eyes, and he needed a steadying hand to mount the steps to the stage. But once seated before his piano, he played through demanding works by Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin without so much as unbuttoning his sky-blue sport coat. Some of his passagework was sketchy, and he had lost some of his rhythmic bite. But his pianism still had plenty of verve, fluidity and grace.”