Talented pianist O’Riley arms himself with versatile musical arsenal

Talented pianist O’Riley arms himself with versatile musical
arsenal

Performer wields Bach, Beethoven, Shostakovich in Schoenberg
recital

By John Mangum

Daily Bruin Staff

Imagine knowing exactly what you were going to do with your life
since the age of 4.

Well, pianist Christopher O’Riley didn’t know precisely what he
would end up doing, but he knew it would involve music.

"I started playing the piano when I was 4 or 5," O’Riley says.
"Along the way, there was a time I wanted to be a rock musician,
there was a time I wanted to be a jazz musician, and so there were
various times where I was applying myself to studies of the piano
with greater or lesser degrees of seriousness.

"But the nice thing about having dabbled a little in popular
music ­ actually it’s not something I do anymore ­ was
that it gave me an appreciation of just kind of performing and
having a good time as opposed to performing as this sort of high
priest in a rarefied sort of activity."

O’Riley mentions this popular misconception that assigns the
piano recital an exclusive position, only to topple it with a
repertoire broad enough to present something for everyone. The
pianist displays his varied interests Saturday night at Schoenberg
Hall in a program of Bach, Shostakovich and Beethoven.

Both of the Bach works are transcriptions, weapons which figure
largely in O’Riley’s pianistic arsenal. Many pianists make
transcriptions of orchestral music, reducing a full score so that
it can be played by two hands, or arrange music originally intended
for instruments other than their own. Few musicians, though,
transcribe with a fervor similar to O’Riley’s.

"I basically just transcribe things as they occur to me as good
ideas," O’Riley says. "It’s not something that I set out to do,
although over the last few years I’ve done quite a lot of it. Maybe
a quarter of my repertoire on the recital stage has been
transcriptions."

While many pianists take up conducting to satisfy their thirst
to perform orchestral works, O’Riley would rather stay with his
instrument. He uses his transcriptions to explore the possibilities
of the piano and to expand his repertoire.

"The transcriptions are basically pieces that I want to play,"
O’Riley says. "It doesn’t really have to do with the period so
much. I guess other pianists, when they find pieces that aren’t
written for the piano, take up conducting.

"I tend to still like playing my instrument, so rather than take
up conducting, I arrange things that I think I would like to play
for the piano. But, it’s not simply pieces that I covet, it’s
pieces that I think will make a very nice effect on the piano."

Following the Bach transcriptions, the first half of the program
concludes with four of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich’s
Preludes and Fugues, which O’Riley emphasizes are not just "Bach
re-treads." Beethoven’s masterly Diabelli Variations, his last work
for piano, rounds out the evening.

"The nice thing about the first half," says O’Riley, "is that it
seems to be sort of so esoteric with all of these fugues that it
makes the Beethoven sound like, you know, sort of a down and dirty,
physical, visceral piece."

O’Riley may have started exploring both the esoteric and
physical aspects of his craft at a young age, but his experiences
now that he’s become a "high priest" are ones he could not have
foreseen. These experiences have given him valuable insight into
what it takes to attain success as a musician.

"It’s a very good idea to have a very firm sense of what’s going
on in the music world at large because you could finish school, get
your degree and end up not really being able to cut it in the real
world. It’s good to get to concerts and hear how everybody’s
playing and hear how much better they are than you, or decide that
you’re much better than they are and that you really have to pursue
this.

"But it’s always helpful to be able to do the sorts of things
that can help you make a buck until you’re ready to play Carnegie
Hall. Pianists have it a lot harder because they really have to
make their own work. If you’re a string player or a wind player
there are many more opportunities in orchestras, small ensemble or
free-lancing situations. Basically, it’s the better you are, the
better chance you’re going to have."

CONCERT: Christopher O’Riley, piano, plays Bach, Beethoven and
Shostakovich Saturday, March 6, in Schoenberg Hall at 8 p.m. TIX
$25, $22 and $9 for students. For more info call (310)
825-2101.