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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

O’Riley Offers Rare Rachmaninoff Piece

Travis Rivers Correspondent

Christopher O’Riley commands the kind of technical finesse and musical authority that brings him prizes in international piano competitions.

His repertoire is adventurous and includes some of the most difficult music ever written for piano. He commands a variety of styles from ragtime to thorny avant-garde classical music.

On Friday, O’Riley will play big brother to one of classical music’s most beautiful orphans, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, as he performs this infrequently programmed work with the Spokane Symphony at the Opera House.

The orchestra’s associate conductor, Jung-Ho Pak, will conduct the concert, which will include Arthur Honegger’s “Pacific 231” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A London Symphony.”

“When people hear I’m playing Rachmaninoff’s First Concerto,” O’Riley says, “someone always says, ‘If he’s going to play Rachmaninoff, why doesn’t he just do the Third?’ The First and the Fourth have really become victims of the popularity of Rachmaninoff’s Second and Third Concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

Rachmaninoff wrote his First Concerto when he was only 18, but years later - long after he had completed the Second and Third Concertos - the composer subjected the First to a thorough revision. “He tightened it up considerably,” O’Riley says. “The tunes are the same, but the structure is far less blowzy. It’s much more direct as compared with the gloomy, brooding aspects of the Second and the Third.

“I think this economy of means speaks strongly in its favor,” the pianist adds. “The slow movement of the First is far more beautiful than any of the other three, and the finale is much more fun, more playful, than the other three as well.”

Playfulness has been a part of O’Riley’s personality from the start. He grew up in Chicago and began piano lessons when he was 4.

“My parents enrolled me in a Catholic preschool,” he says, “and the teachers there thought I showed the mixture of intelligence and energy that might make me a troublemaker, so it was a choice between French lessons or piano lessons to use up some of that energy.”

He studied piano with the nuns for a few years and then began studying with Hungarian emigre Lilli Simon, who had been a pupil of Zoltan Kodaly. At Boston’s New England Conservatory, O’Riley studied with Russell Sherman and worked frequently with the conservatory’s president, Gunther Schuller.

“When I arrived in Boston, I was still dabbling around in jazz,” O’Riley says. “That drew me to Gunther as a person who valued all facets of music. I was a member of the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble and the conservatory’s Contemporary Ensemble, and I participated in performances Gunther conducted of Schoenberg’s ‘Gurrelieder’ and Berg’s opera ‘Wozzeck’ during his last year as president of the conservatory.”

In 1980 and 1981, O’Riley entered no less than four international piano competitions - the Montreal, Van Cliburn, Leeds and the Busoni competitions - winning prizes in all of them.

“I had the advantage of gaining a certain notoriety,” O’Riley says. “But I really lucked out in not winning any of the grand prizes. I didn’t become burned out by having to perform more often than I wanted. It gave enough momentum to my career that I’ve been working rather consistently ever since and been allowed to do it at my own pace.”

That pace has been plenty fast. Now 41, O’Riley has performed with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and he has appeared on major recital series throughout the United States.

His recordings include albums of Beethoven sonatas, solo works by Ravel, and Busoni’s massively difficult “Fantasia Contrapuntistica.” His most recent recording, and his personal favorite, is an all-Stravinsky CD for Elektra Nonesuch that includes O’Riley’s own transcriptions of “Apollo” and “Histoire du Soldat” along with “Three Movements from ‘Petruskha.”’

In addition to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, conductor Jung-Ho Pak has chosen Arthur Honegger’s paean to the steam locomotive, “Pacific 231,” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ tribute to the city where he lived, “A London Symphony.”

James Schoefplin, Spokane Symphony clarinetist and professor of music at WSU, will discuss the music on Friday’s program at 7 p.m. in the Opera House auditorium as part of the Gladys Brooks Pre-Concert Talks series.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT The Spokane Symphony will perform Friday at 8 p.m. at the Opera House. Tickets range from $13.50 to $28.50, and are available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200), G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONCERT The Spokane Symphony will perform Friday at 8 p.m. at the Opera House. Tickets range from $13.50 to $28.50, and are available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200), G&B; Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.