The one musician Billy Joel labelled a “genius”
Billy Joel might have accrued a reputation as one of the greatest pop musicians ever, but he also possesses an incredible adeptness at recognising classical greats. In fact, his appreciation for coveted composers has been filtered throughout much of his works, including ‘This Night’, and, of course, his 13th and final album, Fantasies & Delusions.
Many classical experts and fanatics will likely obtain a divisive view of Joel’s take on the genre, mostly because he plays by the ear of someone who has learned by feeling, taking all elements of what’s so endearing of leaders like Mozart and Beethoven and creating something he hopes evokes a similar reaction in his own audience.
The musician took classical piano lessons while growing up but lost interest in the art until years later when he became drawn to Beethoven once more. “I let these symphonies pound over me,” Joel once explained to Greg Sandow. “Last time I felt like this was the first time I listened to Led Zeppelin. I felt puny. I am nothing, I am insignificant.”
His journey to breaking free from the mould he created led him “mostly to the romantics,” he explained. “Schumann. Schubert. I listened to Brahms, the Germans. I became enamoured with Rachmaninoff.” As a result of his immense love for the great classical composers, Fantasies & Delusions looked back with overt fondness, its notes appearing more than replicatory of his earlier heroes.
Perhaps what is most striking about Joel’s venture into the realm of classical music is that, unlike many experts in the field, he allows himself to be guided solely by feeling, something he has practised over and over in his well-established pop and rock spaces, but that which is treated with less dynamism in the classical world. Classical music is often beautiful and viscerally emotional, but the heady amount of theory and musical pragmatism that underscores it cannot be understated.
In Joel’s case, however, his passion and emotional connection with the form allowed him to give it a good shot, his instinct being led by his appreciation for some of the genre’s most indisputably innovative figures. “I love Mozart,” the musician stated in 1996. “Mozart wrote all in one sitting; you just want to give him a punch. He was so talented. He was such a genius, he was so brilliant,” he added.
Discussing Beethoven, he added: “He agonised. He expressed his humanity and his doubts and his longing and his sorrow and his joy. I could tell that [he] was going through various emotional stages. I relate to someone from 200 years ago, who I never met: some German guy with his hair all done up. He cries out to me and explains to me what life was like.”
For Joel, Mozart and Beethoven’s ability to convey various emotions often in one symphony alone evokes stories and narratives that emerge stronger than most lyrics, which he longed to channel in his own music, particularly when crafting ones based on or inspired by the classical greats. Perhaps what he loves the most is the histrionics of such pieces and his ability to experience this appeal when playing the music to his own audiences.
