Billy Joel performing at The 66th Annual Grammy Awards, airing live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, Sunday, Feb. 4 (8:00-11:30 PM, live ET/5:00-8:30 PM, live PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+.* Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Billy Joel may be known as one of the best pop musicians of all time, but he also has a remarkable ability to recognize classical greats. In reality, his admiration for renowned composers pervades most of his work, especially ‘This Night’ and, of course, his 13th and final album, Fantasies & Delusions.
Many classical experts and fans will undoubtedly have differing opinions about Joel’s take on the genre, owing to the fact that he plays by the ear of someone who has learned by feeling, taking all of the elements that make leaders like Mozart and Beethoven so appealing and creating something he hopes will elicit a similar reaction in his own audience.
The pianist had classical piano training as a child but lost interest in the art until many years later, when he was lured back to Beethoven. “I let these symphonies pound over me,” Joel once told Greg Sandow. “Last time I felt like I was listening to Led Zeppelin for the first time. I felt insignificant. “I am nothing; I am insignificant.”
His quest to break free from the mold he built took him “mostly to the romantics,” he explained. “Schumann. Schubert. I listened to Brahms and the Germans. I fell smitten by Rachmaninoff.” As a result of his deep admiration for the great classical composers, Fantasies & Delusions looked back with nostalgia, its notes more than replicating those of his earlier heroes.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Joel’s foray into classical music is that, unlike many experts in the field, he allows himself to be guided solely by emotion, something he has done repeatedly in his well-established pop and rock spaces but which is treated with less dynamism in the classical world. Classical music is frequently beautiful and deeply emotive, but the amount of theory and musical practicality that underpins it cannot be overstated.
In Joel’s case, however, his love and emotional connection to the form allowed him to give it a fair effort, guided by his admiration for some of the genre’s most undeniably inventive personalities. “I love Mozart,” the guitarist said in 1996. “Mozart wrote everything in one sitting; you just want to punch him.” He was incredibly talented. “He was such a genius, so brilliant,” he said.
Regarding Beethoven, he added: “He agonized. He shared his humanity, doubts, longing, grief, and delight. I could tell he was going through different emotional stages. I relate to someone from 200 years ago, whom I have never met: a German man with his hair all done up. He calls out to me and tells me what life was like.”
For Joel, Mozart and Beethoven’s capacity to transmit multiple emotions in a single symphony conjures stories and storylines that are stronger than most lyrics, which he wished to channel in his own music, particularly when creating pieces based on or inspired by the classical greats. Perhaps what he enjoys most is the histrionics of such pieces.
