The Piano Man Comes to Philadelphia

The Academy of Music in Philadelphia recently celebrated its 151st anniversary with its annual concert and ball.

Now, I have never attended these festivities. It's an occupational hazard of still living at home, and later, going to school two hours away from Philadelphia. A seasonal subscription to the Philadelphia Orchestra is one of items that I have to have, assuming I stay in the area after graduation and at some point have the money to do so. Right now, though, it's more a matter of bugging my parents and friends and trying to convince them that yes, they want to go see the orchestra at Verizon Hall, because guess what they're playing and the space is shaped like the inside of a cello! It's an argument that I usually lose.

Apparantly, though, the 151st anniversary was kind of a big deal. Billy Joel made a guest appearance at the concert portion of the event. This was his first performance with a major orchestra (and Philadelphia had it! woo!). A few of his popular songs were specially orchestrated for the occasion (this is not out of the ordinary; classical renditions of popular music are often performed at the Academy and elsewhere). Infinitely more intriguing, however, at least for the classically oriented, was the debut performance of his Waltz No. 2 (Steinway Hall).

Fans of Joel will probably know this already; Joel does have a heavily classical background. Both of his parents were musicians and he spent much of his childhood studying in this vein until he shunned it in favor of pop. Now, however, as you'll read in the Daily News article linked above, he seems to have returned to his roots, and shows more of an interest in composing Baroque and Romantic influenced neo-classical music for piano. There's an album, Fantasies and Delusions, Op. 1-10 available through various music outlets if you're interested in expanding your modern classical collection. The sheet music is also available to for aspiring pianists, and should present more of a challenge than transcriptions of Piano Man. Joel himself didn't actually play on the album; he composed all the music himself, but hired a more capable classical pianist to perform it.

I don't know if this means that Joel will start making the rounds as a classical musician, or if his appearance in Philadelphia was a one-off, but I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for his next appearance.