Billy Joel - Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano, Op. 1-10

Rating:
Summary: At best, a curiosity
Review: This album of Billy Joel's piano compositions reproduces in score the tracks contained on the CD album with the same title, where the selections are performed by Richard Joo. I have not heard the CD, so my review is based on perusing and reading through some of the music myself. Most of it is of significant technical difficulty, far too complex for amateurs who might have previously enjoyed playing through arrangements of Joel's popular hits. Richard Joo must be a competent pianist. It is not clear why he is credited as an "arranger" of many of the pieces.

Judged purely as classical piano music, which publication in this form would seem to be asking the serious musician to do, the works in this volume are very much of a kind: predominantly lyrical and improvisatory in nature, and rambling and discursive in form. There are some striking melodic ideas, whose impact is almost always lessened by excessive repetition and unfocused development. One of the few compositions immune to these strictures is a short "Invention," a charming Bachian pastiche that is only two pages long. This could well be given to advancing piano students as an alternative to the time-honored compositions by the Baroque master. Coincidentally or not, this is one of the few pieces where Joo is not given a co-writing or arranging credit. Otherwise, the music contained in this volume is at best of ephemeral value. My guess is that Joel's musical reputation will continue to prosper through his pop songs and Broadway musicals.