EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE FOR CONCERT PIANIST O'RILEY.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Music Writer

When pianist Christopher O'Riley premiered his version of the song ``Paranoid Android'' at the Knitting Factory recently, he wanted it to be a big show stopper.

And it was. The audience of die-hard Radiohead fans who crowded into the Hollywood club to hear the classically trained musician perform instrumentals off his tribute album to the British alt-rock band, ``True Love Waits,'' were taken by surprise.

``It went very well,'' O'Riley says, even though he admits ``I was preaching to the converted.'' The fact is, he always does - whether it's tinkling ``Subterranean Homesick Alien'' on the ivories in a dark club or playing a Beethoven sonata at a classical recital.

``Aficionados know it, have many recordings of it, have heard many performances of it,and so - although it may sound like hairsplitting - there is a certain connoisseurism in what does this guy do differently? Or, what aspects of the work does this person bring out in the score? That's a lot of what I do as an interpreter,'' he says. A popular one at that.

A favorite of the classical world - he performs Tuesday with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl - O'Riley is perhaps best-known among alternative rock audiences for his Radiohead homage.

Rolling Stone hailed the 15-track set released in concert with Radiohead's latest as ``melodically vivid yet also noisily orchestral.'' And according to the Boston Globe, ``For this piano man: rock, classical collide.''

O'Riley doesn't deny this point. In fact, he's already 11 songs into a possible next Radiohead tribute album all the while maintaining a busy schedule.

That includes hosting the syndicated public radio program ``From the Top,'' which showcases young musicians and is about to begin airing this month on K-Mozart (105.1 FM). And he's always open to new avenues of artistic expression.

At the moment, O'Riley is at Chicago's Ravinia Festival preparing for a series of afternoon performances with Basil Twist, the master puppeteer.

``He's made an underwater ballet with pieces of fabric and lots of interesting shapes and beautiful writing, and he's choreographed it to Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique,'' says O'Riley, who has learned Franz Liszt's version for piano especially for the performance at the request of the festival's organizer.

For O'Riley, it's what he does no matter what the concert.

``I'm not crossing over,'' he says. ``It's just me playing to a different constituency that's familiar with a different literature.''

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

sandra.barrera(at)dailynews.com

THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC WITH CHRISTOPHER O'RILEY

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Tickets: $1 to $77. Call [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com.

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Photo:

Christopher O'Riley on playing nonclassical material