Pianist O’Riley to let fingers do the flying at Wolf Trap

Christopher O’Riley’s acrobatic fingers leap with the greatest of ease from a Beethoven concerto to Radiohead and from Charles Ives to Nirvana before flying up and away to a Chopin etude. The pianist renowned for discovering the stars of tomorrow on NPR’s “From the Top,” delivering new insight into hard rock and plucking young composers from obscurity, comes to the Barns at Wolf Trap for an evening of incomparable variety.

His latest CD, “Out of My Hands,” will be represented as the mood strikes him. “Us and Them” by Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and the late Richard Wright, “Blue Bell Knoll” by the Scottish band Cocteau Twins and “Lost of Love” by Reid Anderson of The Bad Plus share the disc with nine of O’Riley’s sometimes murky, sometimes prophetic, sometimes ethereal and always fascinating transcriptions of contemporary rock numbers. None is more unexpected or has become more popular than Kurt Cobain’s “Heart-Shaped Box.” The song was doubly inspired by a gift from Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, and documentaries about children with cancer.

” ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ is rather simple harmonically, but we’re dealing with a grunge sound so there’s a lot of distortion,” O’Riley says. “I wanted to make a black sound, but rather than a dark black, I chose a co-mingling of all colors, like Messiaen’s notation in stained glass colors of blue-violet-purple to orange-red, the reverse of Alexander Scriabin.”

Whatever O’Riley chooses is bound to surprise the audience. Perhaps he will transcribe an excerpt from Stravinsky’s ballet “Apollo,” which did not previously exist for the piano. The mix may tap Shostakovich, Thomas Ades, Radiohead or Elliott Smith, the late composer O’Riley likens in quality to Cole Porter. His selections may surprise him as well, for his latest revisions scroll forth on the laptop computer that serves as a visual music rack.

Even as the New England Conservatory graduate and winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions balances his “From the Top” live tapings with classical engagements performing Debussy, Schumann and Beethoven, he is energized by forays into chamber music with the likes of cellist Carter Brey and transcribing songs that won’t go away, again and again, until he is content.