June 2, 2013

O’Riley’s Liszt – 2-CD Set

Christopher O’Riley is one of classical music’s most visible populists, as host of NPR’s “From The Top” and as an arranger and performer of tunes by Radiohead, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. His interest in pop and rock adaptations seems to flow naturally to his latest project, which consists entirely of Liszt transcriptions – an adaptation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni; Schumann’s “Spring Song;” the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and two lieder by Schubert. The second disc is devoted entirely to Liszt’s gaudy arrangement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. O’Riley has a field day with it all, making him an inheritor to the tradition of the late Earl Wild.

Listen at: WQXR