Radiohead rhapsodies
Here are some bits and pieces from an interview with Christopher O’Riley for the Boston Herald.
Christopher O’Riley loves Radiohead. Only love may not be a strong enough word. “Go ahead and say it,” O’Riley says when asked about his fascination with the English band. “Obsessive. There should be a life somewhere, right? It’s really the only music I listen to when I’m not listening for work.”
Now O’Riley brings together the unlikely combination of his classical piano chops and the music of Radiohead on “True Love Waits: Christopher O’Riley Plays Radiohead.” It arrives in stores Tuesday, not coincidentally the release day of Radiohead’s new “Hail To the Thief.”
The CD consists of O’Riley playing his own solo piano versions of 15 Radiohead songs drawn from the group’s five albums and live EP. It’s the only classical album ever to earn a four-star rating from Rolling Stone (Billy Joel’s “Fantasies and Delusions” managed only 2).
Once O’Riley had a dozen transcriptions finished, he performed a Radiohead recital on NPR’s “Performance Today.” Radiohead fans quickly made the show available via the Internet, sparking interest both in O’Riley and classical music.
“I had Radiohead fans writing me saying, `I see you’re playing Mozart and I’ve always wondered what Mozart’s about,’ ” O’Riley says. “It’s like all of a sudden they had a friend in the business. Now there’s a whole dialogue going on.
“The Radiohead fanboard I’ve been on most often is called ateaseweb.com, where you’ll find 200 Radiohead fans chatting away at any given time of day. People will say, `I know you’re into Radiohead. What would you recommend?’ I go to some of the music that Radiohead has drawn on, like (Olivier) Messiaen. A song on their new record called `Sail to the Moon’ is almost an homage to the violin, cello and piano movement in Messiaen’s Quartet. It starts out with this bell-like set of chords.”
There’s a full story available at BostonHerald.com.
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