One of the most dynamic and popular pianists in America’s classical music scene, Christopher O’Riley is the host of NPR’s From the Top, a program that provides a platform for the youngest generations of classical music performers to show their stuff. It is one of the top shows on public radio in America. Its television offspring, From the Top at Carnegie Hall, is set to resume taping in 2010. Although these projects are demanding in their own respect, O’Riley maintains an extraordinary amount of personal creativity as well. He made his conducting debut with the Columbus Symphony (in Ohio) in May and has just released Out of My Hands on the White Tie/Mesa Bluemoon label, an occasion celebrated by a concert to a packed house at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.

O’Riley is pursuing the much maligned, but more often honored, art of transcribing for the piano works not written for it. Nineteenth century composers such as Franz Liszt once transcribed at the pace of a one-man industry. And like Liszt, O’Riley transforms the music of his contemporaries, but O’Riley considers among his contemporaries musicians such as the rock bands Radiohead, Nirvana, and Portishead, something that has sent shock waves throughout the classical industry — can this really be classical music? Rather than taking a trite, easy listening track as was common in the 1960s when classical musicians played The Beatles, O’Riley’s conceptions are wholly serious and easily pass muster as “classical,” and the new album seems his best effort in this endeavor yet. We were intrigued, and when AMG’s Uncle Dave Lewis got hold of Christopher O’Riley he was en route to a From the Top taping in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

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For opera fans in the New York City area, the Metropolitan Opera is offering free screenings of ten productions originally broadcast during the first three seasons of its series, The Met Live in HD. The operas will run on ten consecutive nights, shown outside on the Lincoln Center Plaza, weather permitting. There are 2800 seats available on a first come, first served basis, so plan to arrive early! The schedule after the jump:

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Pianist Jeffrey Biegel is young, ambitious, and brimming with enthusiasm. That alone would not make him automatically eligible for inclusion on the All Music Blog, however Jeffrey has an angle, multiple angles, in fact, on revitalizing the standard repertoire, cultivating new music, and utilizing new media to promote the cause of classical music in our time. Besides, Biegel has two — count ‘em, two — new classical releases this summer, all the more reason to lend him an ear — it should be well worth your time.

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Although only a few years have elapsed since Chinese pianist Xiayin Wang first made her mark in the U.S., interest in her artistry has been swiftly growing since her first Marquis disc, Introducing Xiayin Wang, appeared in 2007. With the release of her third disc and debut on the prestigious Naxos label it seemed like a good time to catch up with Xiayin Wang. When one listens to Wang, one is not thinking about questions of technique, interpretation or performance tradition — she dedicates her pianism to feelings and emotions alone. It’s deeply affecting playing and difficult to describe in words; perhaps it is best to allow Xiayin Wang the opportunity to speak for herself.

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The final installment of the 2008-2009 season in The Met: Live in HD series will be a production of Rossini’s 1817 comedy, La Cenerentola, his retelling of the Cinderella story. The supernatural elements are gone — there is no Fairy Godmother and no pumpkin coach — but the humor with which Rossini invests the music is magic enough. The production features Latvian coloratura mezzo-soprano Elína Garanca as Angelina, “la cenerentola,” with American tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Don Ramiro, the Prince.

The live transmission of La Cenerentola will be on Saturday, May 9, starting at 12:30 pm (ET), with an encore broadcast on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:00 pm (local time) in the US, and on Saturday, May 23, at 12:30 pm (EST) in Canada. (Not all theatres showing the live transmission will participate in an encore showing.) Check your local theatre listings for details, or check out the Met’s website.

The great German composer, conductor, and violist Paul Hindemith died at age 68, a little over a month after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, so the very idea of Hindemith producing “new music” in 2009 seems a little counter-intuitive. Admittedly, the gradual trickling out of bottom drawer content — sketches, unpublished and forgotten early works, etc. — by major classical composers is nothing new. It seems these days as though Jean Sibelius has a half dozen new things come out every few months or so. However, instances where a large score, such as a previously unknown full-scale concerto, from a composer of Hindemith’s stature are relatively rare. That’s what Finnish label Ondine is offering for the first time in their release, Hindemith: Klaviermusik mit Orchester.

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The next installment in The Met: Live in HD series will be a new production of La Sonnambula, Vincenzo Bellini’s gentle1831 pastoral comedy about a young woman who finds herself in hot water with her fiancé when she sleepwalks into the wrong man’s bedroom. The slim plot has kept the opera from becoming a staple of the repertoire, but it’s full of delightful music, and in the hands of the right performers it can be a real charmer. This production features soprano Natalie Dessay and tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who are vocally ideal for the bel canto repertoire, and who created real electricity in last year’s La Fille du Régiment. The controversial production by Mary Zimmerman moves the action to the present and sets it in the rehearsal space of an opera company rehearsing for a performance of La Sonnambula. It’s guaranteed to be a fresh and intriguing take on the opera.
 
The live transmission of La Sonnambula will be on Saturday, March 21, starting at 1:00 pm (ET), with an encore broadcast on Wednesday, April 1, at 7:00 pm (local time) in the US, and Saturday, April 25 in Canada. Check your local theatre listings for details, or check out the Met’s website.

Ace fiddler Mark O’Connor has made a name for himself as champion traditional fiddler, country music sideman and in jazz, but for about 20 years he has also composed classical music as a sideline. In 2009, O’Connor is rolling out his Americana Symphony, his first full-fledged orchestral work with no part for him to play as soloist. This is a reversal of the usual formula; more often it is the classical musician that turns to popular styles to let their long hair down, not the other way ’round. In an interview with AMG’s Uncle Dave Lewis, Mark O’Connor shares his thinking on this symphony and some notion of what it’s like to experience his own music from the other side of the proscenium arch.

AMG: Greetings, Mark, from Ann Arbor; this is Uncle Dave Lewis.

Mark O’Connor: A pleasure to hear from you, how are you?

AMG: A little under the weather, sorry to say, but I wasn’t about to miss this opportunity to speak with you. I understand you are touring a lot these days, where are you calling from now?

MOC: Actually, I’m calling from home in New York City. I tour quite a bit on the weekends and just come back to New York through the week. Sometimes I take off for a bit longer, a week or two at a time, but generally I go out to where I need to be over the weekend, and then come home.

AMG: In your work, there’s a gradual shift from being a champion traditional fiddler — which is a world in which you still function — to being a classical composer. What do you find are the common and uncommon elements between fiddling and classical music making, besides the fiddle itself?

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