Simone Dinnerstein returns to Bach on her first orchestral disc

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PIANIST SIMONE DINNERSTEIN Bach: A Strange Beauty

“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” – The New York Times

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

Simone Dinnerstein’s special affinity to the music of Bach was cemented when her self-funded recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations took the US Billboard charts by storm on its release in 2007. The album drew intense critical acclaim and Dinnerstein’s unique playing garnered such impressive reviews as that from The New York Times "An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation".

Her intense and expressive playing style as well as her individual approach to Bach’s music is also revealed in her debut on Sony Classical. The mixed programme offers a range of sonorities and textures between the solo piano, piano with orchestra, the piano mimicking other instruments and even the piano evoking a soloist with orchestra, as it does at points in the English Suite.

The title Simone Dinnerstein has chosen for her album comes from a quote from the writer and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon about beauty: “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion”. She feels this exemplifies the way she experiences Bach’s music. Seemingly built around patterns, symmetry and logic, Bach’s music on further delving, deviates constantly from the expected patterns, altering the rhythmic stress and creating something mysterious and unexpected.

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