He also mixes things up by presenting some half-classical, half-Radiohead programs, proselytizing Rameau and Brahms to the "kids" who are "waiting around for the good stuff." Occasionally, he grants, he notices the "older crowd checking their watches" during the second set. The 47-year-old pianist keeps up the more-or-less-conventional classical side of his career, delivering concerts of Chopin, Grieg and such contemporary composers as John Adams. "But after that, we decided we should emulate rock shows and do it all in one fell swoop." "We did it as sort of a piano recital with an intermission," he says. O'Riley presented his first all-Radiohead concert at Columbia University last December. "It's really becoming a whole repertoire," he notes. And his passion has paid off handsomely in the form of an increasing number of invitations to perform his meticulous arrangements of such Yorke-and-company staples as "Everything In Its Right Place," "Subterranean Homesick Alien," "Exit Music (For a Film)" and "Airbag," as well as the relatively obscure title track of his CD, "True Love Waits." Simply put, O'Riley is obsessed with Radiohead. He is deeply familiar with both the band's repertoire and the other musicians (in this case the jazz-piano star) who also cover songs by his favorite pop group. Obviously, O'Riley knows his stuff when it comes to a rock band that has perhaps been more successful than any since the Beatles in terms of building its popularity while growing increasingly experimental with musical forms and textures. "'Creep' might really step over the line into a Muzak version of what is an unremitting and uncompromising tune, and I do have some sense of shame." But with "Paranoid Android," he says, "I finally figured out that, hey, it's been on Radiohead set lists since the song was written, and I came to the point where I just really didn't fear being confused with Brad Mehldau in my treatment of the song." "I choose songs that I think will work well on the piano," O'Riley explained during a phone interview last week from his house "under the 'Hollywood' sign" in Los Angeles. Until recently, O'Riley had resisted including "Paranoid Android" in his live sets, just as he has eschewed another fan favorite, "Creep," from Radiohead's 1993 debut Pablo Honey. 17, he will perform his all-Radiohead concert in Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. It was Christopher O'Riley, a classical pianist who until recently was best known for his performances of music by Stravinsky, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven.Įarlier this year, however, O'Riley released True Love Waits, a CD of solo piano interpretations of 15 Radiohead songs, and on Wednesday, Sept. The "he," however, was not Thom Yorke, lead vocalist of Radiohead, the English band that composed and recorded that tune on its breakthrough 1997 album OK Computer. "You should know that 'Paranoid Android' is going to be on the program," he said near the end of the phone conversation.
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