Pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s first album on Sony Classical Bach: A Strange Beauty

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The Only Traditional Classical Artist To Appear on the Billboard Top 200

“Dinnerstein brings out the luminous, off-kilter splendor of this music in a way that is both fearless and sly.” - San Francisco Chronicle

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s latest album, Bach: A Strange Beauty (Sony Classical), makes its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart. Dinnerstein is also the only Traditional Classical artist to grace the Billboard Top 200 chart which compiles the entire music industry’s top selling albums. In addition, this week the album is No. 4 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart (new artists across musical genres). Bach: A Strange Beauty also spent time as the No. 1 top selling album on Barnesandnoble.com and No. 2 selling album on Amazon.com, in good company with The Decemberists, Cake, The Black Keys and Bruno Mars. Last Sunday Dinnerstein was featured on CBS Sunday Morning.

Bach: A Strange Beauty, which is Dinnerstein’s first orchestral disc as well as her first for Sony Classical, sees the pianist return to Bach, this time combining three transcriptions of his Chorale Preludes with one of his English Suites and two of his Keyboard Concerti. The new album has been featured by classical radio stations across the country and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

Simone Dinnerstein’s special affinity to the music of Bach was cemented when her self-funded recording of his Goldberg Variations ranked No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Chart upon its release in 2007. Dinnerstein’s unique playing garnered impressive reviews. The New York Times chose the disc as one of the best of 2007, and reported it “An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” A second album, The Berlin Concert, also ranked No. 1 upon release in 2008. Her intense and expressive style as well as her individual approach to Bach’s music is also revealed in her debut on Sony Classical. The mixed program offers a range of sonorities and textures – the solo piano, piano with orchestra, the piano mimicking other instruments, and even the piano evoking a soloist with orchestra, as it does during the English Suite.

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