Richard Joo performed Billy Joel’s classical compositions on the album “Fantasies & Delusions.”
Released in 2001, “Fantasies & Delusions” is Billy Joel’s only studio album devoted entirely to classical compositions. The pianist is more fully credited as Richard Hyung-ki Joo, a British-Korean musician and Joel’s longtime friend.
The album contains solo piano works arranged into a set of fantasies, waltzes, arias, and other character pieces. Joo’s performance helped present Joel’s writing as concert-style classical music rather than as an extension of his pop recordings. The album was recorded in New York and later re-recorded in Vienna for its final release.
A common mix-up is assuming that a famous concert pianist such as Lang Lang, Yundi Li, or Valentina Lisitsa played the record. They did not. Joo is the pianist credited with performing Joel’s compositions, and the album reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums chart.