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Friday, January 25, 2008
Classical pianist Christopher O'Riley has toured with renowned orchestras, collaborated with popular conductors Leonard Slatkin and John Williams and recorded French repertoire with James Galway.
He's also a huge fan of Radiohead.
Some of the English alt-rock band's songs will be part of the program during the Riverside County Philharmonic and O'Riley concert, "Radiohead, Ravel and Beethoven."
O'Riley, a Chicago native, first learned of Radiohead in 1997 after all the praise heaped upon the album "OK Computer."
Since then, he has purchased all the band's CDs, attended concerts and regularly comments on authoritative Radiohead Internet site, ateaseweb.com.
He's also a huge fan of Radiohead.
Some of the English alt-rock band's songs will be part of the program during the Riverside County Philharmonic and O'Riley concert, "Radiohead, Ravel and Beethoven."
O'Riley, a Chicago native, first learned of Radiohead in 1997 after all the praise heaped upon the album "OK Computer."
Since then, he has purchased all the band's CDs, attended concerts and regularly comments on authoritative Radiohead Internet site, ateaseweb.com.
More importantly, the pianist has put out two popular classical CDs of Radiohead interpretations, "True Love Waits" (2003) and "Hold Me to This" (2005).
The former is reportedly the only classical recording to garner a four-star review in Rolling Stone magazine.
Those CDs were followed by tributes to Elliott Smith, "Home to Oblivion" (2006) and Nick Drake, "Second Grace" (2007).
We caught up with O'Riley, 51, via phone from his home in Ohio to discuss the music as well as hosting duties for NPR's classical radio show (and PBS-TV counterpart) "From the Top."
Q: Can you tell me about the pieces you'll be performing at Riverside Municipal Auditorium?
A: With the orchestra, I'll be performing Maurice Ravel's "Concerto for the Left
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Hand in D," one of few pieces for left hand alone and orchestra, dating from the early 20th century ... Ravel's music has a lot of color and harmony. It's very palpable. That sort of sensual aspect appeals to me when I'm looking at piano music. I find all of his music very compelling.
Q: Doesn't it have a jazzy feel too?
A: It has jazz elements with darker undercurrents. It's not happy-go-lucky. I think it's sort of chaotic or verging on it and has many shades; some of which have to do with gamelan music - an exotic quality ... It's a piece I always look forward to because it's beautiful in terms of melody and harmony and a great interactive piece between piano and orchestra. I'm not just out there on my own. It's a showpiece (about) what you can do with one hand. It's really kind of amazing.
Q: Then there's your Radiohead transcriptions.
A: Riverside is the first orchestra that's been kind enough to say, "Look, we're going to carve out a little piece of the program so you can do this." I think it's very courteous and courageous of them.
Q: I was surprised that you'll be performing "Videotape" from the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows" besides older faves "Paranoid Android" and "Let Down."
A: They toured a version of "Videotape" on tour, and it was rather grand. As the last song on the album, it became vestigial and disembodied ... the version I play is based solely on the first performance they did on tour. That's sort of an interesting take on Radiohead's music: It cannot only accommodate them rethinking it constantly, but somebody else's take. There's a lot of life in that song.
Q: You used to do short Radiohead numbers during station breaks on "From the Top," the National Public Radio program you host. What led to your doing entire CDs?
A: I was listening to a lot of Radiohead. I had done other arrangements ... tangos or Stravinsky ballets. I had that bug in me where if it doesn't exist for piano, and I really love the piece, I want to find a way to make it work. Here was this opportunity to play these pieces unannounced on national radio. After the host would say, "That's Christopher O'Riley playing Radiohead," we'd get mail into the program saying, "Who is this Mr. Head and where can we find more of his beautiful music?" That seemed to be a (sign) to do something.
Q: Have young people told you they got into classical music after hearing your Radiohead, Smith and Drake interpretations?
A: They're no dummies. They're not going to just fall over. They'll write in and say, "I really love your Radiohead CDs, and I see you're playing a Mozart concerto (locally). I've always wanted to check (his music) out." If they associate me with a sound they like, maybe it'll be the way for them into Mozart. That's pretty gratifying.
The former is reportedly the only classical recording to garner a four-star review in Rolling Stone magazine.
Those CDs were followed by tributes to Elliott Smith, "Home to Oblivion" (2006) and Nick Drake, "Second Grace" (2007).
We caught up with O'Riley, 51, via phone from his home in Ohio to discuss the music as well as hosting duties for NPR's classical radio show (and PBS-TV counterpart) "From the Top."
Q: Can you tell me about the pieces you'll be performing at Riverside Municipal Auditorium?
A: With the orchestra, I'll be performing Maurice Ravel's "Concerto for the Left
Advertisement
Hand in D," one of few pieces for left hand alone and orchestra, dating from the early 20th century ... Ravel's music has a lot of color and harmony. It's very palpable. That sort of sensual aspect appeals to me when I'm looking at piano music. I find all of his music very compelling.
Q: Doesn't it have a jazzy feel too?
A: It has jazz elements with darker undercurrents. It's not happy-go-lucky. I think it's sort of chaotic or verging on it and has many shades; some of which have to do with gamelan music - an exotic quality ... It's a piece I always look forward to because it's beautiful in terms of melody and harmony and a great interactive piece between piano and orchestra. I'm not just out there on my own. It's a showpiece (about) what you can do with one hand. It's really kind of amazing.
Q: Then there's your Radiohead transcriptions.
A: Riverside is the first orchestra that's been kind enough to say, "Look, we're going to carve out a little piece of the program so you can do this." I think it's very courteous and courageous of them.
Q: I was surprised that you'll be performing "Videotape" from the new Radiohead album "In Rainbows" besides older faves "Paranoid Android" and "Let Down."
A: They toured a version of "Videotape" on tour, and it was rather grand. As the last song on the album, it became vestigial and disembodied ... the version I play is based solely on the first performance they did on tour. That's sort of an interesting take on Radiohead's music: It cannot only accommodate them rethinking it constantly, but somebody else's take. There's a lot of life in that song.
Q: You used to do short Radiohead numbers during station breaks on "From the Top," the National Public Radio program you host. What led to your doing entire CDs?
A: I was listening to a lot of Radiohead. I had done other arrangements ... tangos or Stravinsky ballets. I had that bug in me where if it doesn't exist for piano, and I really love the piece, I want to find a way to make it work. Here was this opportunity to play these pieces unannounced on national radio. After the host would say, "That's Christopher O'Riley playing Radiohead," we'd get mail into the program saying, "Who is this Mr. Head and where can we find more of his beautiful music?" That seemed to be a (sign) to do something.
Q: Have young people told you they got into classical music after hearing your Radiohead, Smith and Drake interpretations?
A: They're no dummies. They're not going to just fall over. They'll write in and say, "I really love your Radiohead CDs, and I see you're playing a Mozart concerto (locally). I've always wanted to check (his music) out." If they associate me with a sound they like, maybe it'll be the way for them into Mozart. That's pretty gratifying.
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