Bach, to my mind, is the only Baroque composer whose music always survives with triumph, whether it’s played on period instruments, modern instruments, steel band, sung by the Swingle Singers, or given a rock beat.
Simone Dinnerstein‘s instrument of choice is the modern grand piano, and her program Wednesday night on the UW President’s Piano Series incorporated one of the composer’s English Suites, No. 3, and three transcriptions of different well-known Chorale Preludes by Bach from well-known pianists of their day: Italy’s Ferrucio Busoni, Germany’s Wilhelm Kempff and England’s Dame Myra Hess. Continue reading Simone Dinnerstein impresses at Meany Theater
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs this week at the University of Washington.
Zach Carstensen: Bach figures prominently into your repertoire. You recorded the Goldberg Variations with Telarc and have a new recording of Bach keyboard concertos coming out on Sony. Why do you find yourself drawn to Bach?
Simone Dinnerstein: Bach has been my favorite composer since I was a teenager. For me, his music is the perfect synthesis of the cerebral and the spiritual.
ZC: How does your playing of pieces like the Goldberg Variations change from performance to performance?
SD: Over the years, my interpretation has grown freer. I take more time both within the Variations and between the Variations.
ZC: Is there a right way to play Bach?
SD: Definitely not! I think that is the beautiful thing about music – there are no absolutes.
ZC: Even though Bach’s music is a significant part of your repertoire, you’ve also played Webern, Copland and for your upcoming recital in Seattle you are playing Schubert and Schumann in addition to Bach. Do you every worry about being cast narrowly as just a Bach specialist?
SD: Not really, you’re right that I play music by a wide variety of composers. But if I was going to be associated with one composer – I don’t think Bach is a bad choice!
ZC: Your dad is a visual artist. I am wondering if your playing and how you approach music has a visual component? Are there images particular pieces conjure for you? Do you hope the audience “sees” something too?
SD: When I was growing up, my dad (the painter Simon Dinnerstein) used to talk to me a lot about line in drawing, and sometimes when he would listen to me play he would say, “I don’t hear the line.” It made me think about phrasing in a particular way. I often think about light and dark, and texture in my playing. I don’t think of particular images, but I think of techniques used by artists.
ZC: Are there any pianists active today that you admire?
SD: Yes, of course. Some of today’s pianists that I admire include Awadagin Pratt, Natasha Paremski, Orion Weiss, and Gloria Cheng.
Simone Dinnerstein performs as part of the University of Washington’s Presidents’ Piano Series January 12, 2011 at 8 PM.
January 6th this year was Christmas day in the Julian Calendar, and this is the calendar followed by the Eastern Orthodox churches. So it was perfectly appropriate and not at all tardy for Cappella Romana to give a concert of Russian and Ukrainian Christmas music at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Montlake last Saturday night.
The church was nearly full of people, many from Seattle’s Russian community, and many in the intermission spent time looking at the fine mosaics and iconic paintings which adorn it.
The performance was conducted not by Cappella Romana’s music director, Alexander Lingas, but by an equally renowned scholar in Slavic music, this time of the 17th and 18th centuries. Mark Bailey was guest directing for the third time with this group. Continue reading Christmas on the Julian Calendar
This season with the SSO, nearly every week is an adventure in brand new music written especially for this, Gerard Schwarz’s last season as music director. The Gund/Simony commissions are in addition to the new pieces and premieres already scheduled for the season.
This was again the case this past weekend. Two new pieces, one brand new, the other receiving a Seattle debut, were on the program. Bright Sheng’s Shanghai Overture is the second piece in two weeks by the composer performed by the SSO. Sheng’s Prelude to Black Swan — a Gund/Simonyi commission — introduced the annual performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
There was much celebration on First Hill New Year’s Eve, but no tin horns, merry pranks or silly hats. It was a concert at St. James Cathedral one of many notable traditions of the church. It was filled, as always, to the brim well before curtain time at 11 with people anxious to bring in the nbew year with something more powerful than the usual partying.
Programs vary from to year, always utilizing the impressive musical forces of the cathedral. I am not quite sure how they manage a concert of this complexity, with multiple masses on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, also to full houses. Although those services are religious celebrations, they are filled with music, both instrumental and vocal. The church itself is an inspiration of harmonious beauty, especially at Christmas with its dozens of scarlet poinsettias outlining the central altar, along with white roses and paperwhites, handsome tall and erect, and, of course, greenery, as well as the organ loft at the back of the church. The handsome gold-like sculpture hanging from the dome, scattering light in wonderfully random ways, and slim red banners on various columns are curiously reassuring and interesting. Continue reading St. James brings in 2011
With 2010 nearly over it is time for my annual list of the ten most memorable concerts of the year. In no particular order here are my favorite concerts from 2010.
Seattle Youth Symphony and Mahler’s Second
The Seattle Youth Symphony’s viscerally powerful performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony would have been in the top ten. Stephen Radcliffe and his orchestra of young musicians played with more conviction than orchestras with more stature and more seasoned veteran musicians. This concert, was hands down one of the best concerts of the year.
Seattle Opera: Daron Hagen’s Amelia
Last spring Seattle Opera marked another milestone by premiering Amelia: a new opera from the pen of Daron Hagen, the first commissioned by the company. New opera’s aren’t exactly commonplace, but in 2010 a bumper crop of new operas found their way to the stage. Hagen’s scoring, a poetic libretto by Gardner McFall, and convincing stage direction from Seattle Opera veteran Stephen Wadsworth combined to create an unforgettable series of performances at McCaw Hall.
The Seattle Symphony Orchestra does a slew of concerts during the holiday season, appealing to a range of interests. Most of them are pretty easy on the brain and popular.
Themes come and go, but one remains a constant: Handel’s “Messiah.” It has been performed just about everywhere in the city — not to mention the world. At one time there seemed to be dozens of performances, all claiming one virtue or another. The number is much reduced now, but the symphony continues to present the proud profile of Handel’s piece in multiple performances. Of course, the great work should be performed at Easter: it concludes with the Resurrection of Christ, not his birth. But the tradition of “Messiah” at Christmas is a powerful one, and it is better to hear the oratorio at Christmas then not at all. The “Messiah” is not the only holiday offering among the performing arts, but it is the gravest. Tchaikovsky’s score for “The Nutcracker” is also a work of genius but of a quite different nature. Continue reading Messiah plays to sold-out houses
Mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor sings Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Seattle Symphony this week. Lieberson’s song cycle — drawn from five poems by Pablo Neruda — were originally written for his wife Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Each of the five songs meditates on love. Hunt-Lieberson only sang the songs a few times in public before cancer took her life. O’Connor has taken up the challenge of Neruda Songs, singing them with thirteen different orchestras and even receiving Peter Lieberson’s approval.
Gathering Note 