Simone’s CD of the Month

“Broadway – Lafayette”

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein has endeared herself to the music public through her amazing performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Now she moves on to music with a French and Jazz influence.

We get to enjoy the following program:

Gershwin:

Lasser:

  • Concerto for Piano and Orchestra ‘The Circle and The Child’

Ravel:

Performed by Simone Dinnerstein, piano, with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kristjan Järvi conducting.

Simone celebrates the historic link between France and America through three different composers – Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin and Philip Lasser. This recording features the world-premiere recording of the piano concerto ‘The circle and the child’ by composer Philip Lasser (whose mother is French and father is American) who wrote the concerto especially for Simone Dinnerstein in 2012.

This concerto is an amalgam of both French and American musical sounds, while being based on a chorale by Bach “Ihr Gestirn’, Ihr hohlen Lüfte” (You stars in heaven, you vaulted sky).

BBC Music Magazine, March 2015, wrote:

“These are pugnacious performances in which Dinnerstein’s heavily articulated playing is matched by plenty of detail from Kristjan Järvi’s Leipzig forces, who capture the spirit even if they don’t convince that they can naturally swing it. Sony’s sound recording assists: there’s the natural spaciousness of surround sound yet a crisp focus on each individual.”

Here is Simone Dinnerstein practicing the music of Ravel:  

And next, here are some fascinating comments by Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, as she records Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias: