Choose artist...
Home   >   Projects

Projects

Artist: Christopher O'Riley
Projects per page:
Christopher O'Riley:

J.S. Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Christopher O’Riley has immersed himself for the last several years in the study of J.S. Bach’s seminal keyboard work: The Well-Tempered Clavier. The initial result of his devotion was a set of video lectures/meditations on each of the 96 constituent parts, the Preludes & Fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier, now available on O’Riley’s YouTube channel @ChristopherORiley360 entitled ‘Everything We Need To Know About Playing The Piano We Learn From The Well-Tempered Clavier.’ These presentations were supplemented a short time later when the pianist presented what can now be considered to be the only thorough-going method for the study of Bach and other musics as an eight-week course. All of these lectures, master classes and performances, again are available as YouTube Playlists on his channel All About Bach @U/U.
With last year's Navona release of O’Riley’s trail-blazing performances of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, the cycle is now complete with this release of Book II. 

The contrast between Books I & II of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier is manifest in their respective opening Preludes. Book I’s C Major is gentle enough to protect a fragile candle flame; Book II’s is sufficiently robust to herald the arrival of a nova-brilliant sunrise, a million candles in strength.

Book I, which was composed over a short period of time when Bach was a young man can be understood as a manual in training players to achieve the clearest keyboard counterpoint. Each prelude acts as an etude for a specific technical device. It presents Bach as a teacher. Book II, by contrast, illustrates a seasoned compositional master. Published some 20 years later and considered over many years, Book II is a more expansive and demanding set of pieces, reflecting Bach’s greater musical and lived experience. Part of that experience was exposure to new musical forms coming out of other European countries, primarily Italy.

In the 1730s, Bach was sensitive to criticism that his music was old fashioned. A central focus of his composing became the synthesis of new forms — such as aria ritornello, sinfonia, instrumental trio, and concerto — with his well-established dance forms and strict counterpoint. Book II is to a large degree predicated on the concept of one genre alluding to another. Bach was ever engineering ways to blend old and new in structure, finding authoritative and original updates to age-old problems of counterpoint.

A true expedition into the second set’s finest of details, O’Riley delves beyond the notes themselves and into the spaces between the notes, sifting through the silence for every last possibility of rhythmic flexibility and potential for expression. The Japanese aesthetic of Ma: The Space Between, acts as an overarching conceptualization in O’Riley’s detailed method. With preludes and fugues more intricate and complex than those of the first set, Book II has a more varied palette of forms and provides an even richer opportunity for the discovery of texture, articulation, improvisation and hidden meaning within the music.
 

Christopher O'Riley:

J.S. Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier Book I

Pianist, arranger, collaborative artist, composer, educator, and media personality Christopher O’Riley follows his passions into a fractal array of innovative directions, ever striving for the truest and deepest human connection, through performance and collaboration. 

It is with O’Riley’s dedication to the learning abilities, personalities, and imaginations of artists that he comes to his latest endeavor – a traversal of J.S. Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. O’Riley has produced an online archive of video lectures entitled “Everything We Need to Know About Playing the Piano We Learn From The Well-Tempered Clavier,” a series illuminating a new perspective on each Prelude and Fugue, expanding on the ways the paucity of Bach’s notation encourages us to engage creatively and imaginatively. 

O’Riley’s The Well Tempered Clavier Book I delves into the subtle intricacies of Bach’s famous masterwork, revealing the composer’s nuanced craftsmanship through an exploration of the spaces between notes. Inspired by Bach’s profound lyricism and informed by historical insights, O’Riley’s interpretation transcends conventional keyboard traditions. Embracing the expressive potential of articulation and texture, he illuminates counterpoint with dynamic contrast, unveiling hidden dialogues within Bach’s compositions. Through meticulous attention to intonation and rhythmic flexibility, O’Riley uncovers layers of meaning, echoing the Japanese concept of “Ma” — the significance of space and silence. This album invites listeners to immerse themselves in Bach’s universe, where every pause resonates with depth and possibility.

Christopher O'Riley:

hold me to this

Hold Me To This: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead is virtuoso pianist Christopher O'Riley's second album of solo piano interpretations of recordings by the progressive English rock band Radiohead. Like True Love Waits, Mr. O'Riley's first album devoted to Radiohead repertoire, the new album's performances were developed from his own meticulous transcriptions of Radiohead records. Unlike its predecessor which comprised personal favorites, Hold Me To This interprets a number of rarities, tracks never released on the band's full-length CDs.

65 Stations Total
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle (ADI) Berkeley, Cincinatti, New Orleans, Kansas City, Tucson, Honolulu