FRI., DECEMBER 07, 2007
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2007 Innovators Q&A: Simone Dinnerstein
by John Schaefer
One of the most remarkable stories in the classical music world in 2007 — and perhaps one of the year’s most remarkable music stories, period — was the meteoric rise of Brooklyn pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Although she had attracted the attention of some critics in Philadelphia and New York and had released a recording of Beethoven Cello Sonatas with actor/cellist Zuill Bailey, Dinnerstein’s career path had been decidedly wayward. A 34-year old mom and neighborhood piano teacher, she raised the money to do her own recording of JS Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations — despite the presence of dozens of recordings of the piece by some of classical music’s most revered pianists. Telarc Records was convinced by her distinctive, strongly personal take on this old classic, and issued the album in late August.
What happened next was a perfect storm of critical acclaim and, even more unlikely for a previously unknown classical pianist, public enthusiasm. People who heard the record couldn’t wait to tell everyone else about it — and apparently, word spread fast. By the end of day 1, Dinnerstein’s Goldbergs was the #2 seller on the Amazon.com charts. Not the Classical charts, but the main music chart, ahead of the White Stripes and a host of other huge pop names. Unlike overnight sensations in the pop world, which literally do seem to materialize overnight and then vanish just as quickly, Simone Dinnerstein’s album has remained on Amazon’s Top 20 since its release date.
Why did all this happen so suddenly? Perhaps Dinnerstein’s piano chops impressed the more technically-minded listeners (listen to Variation 5, for example). Or maybe people were responding to her mystical, almost Zen-like approach to the work (check out the opening Aria). The pianist herself, in conversation, seems to be somewhat awestruck by it all — perhaps regarding it as yet another of music’s seemingly endless supply of mysteries.
You’ve said the Goldberg Variations are almost a religious experience for you.
Yes, it’s a piece that traverses a very long period of time — it takes about 80 minutes to play through. It’s a very meditative piece; and it requires a certain kind of stillness — to listen to it and to play it. When I perform it live, I feel like the audience can have an amazing experience because we so seldom sit for that long and really focus and listen like that.
Just a year ago you were a piano teacher in Brooklyn; this year you have the Front page of Slate.com, a big feature in the New York Times, a segment on NPR’s Morning Edition and a hit CD. And you did it all without following any of the usual rules for a classical pianist, which are: you become a teenage wunderkind, you win a major competition, you get signed to a major label and off you go. Why was your journey so circuitous?
Well I have to say, it wasn’t the plan. Of course, I wanted to do the normal route. But it didn’t work for me. As a child, I had a sensitive way of feeling music, but I wasn’t a prodigy, and I didn’t like practicing. And I just didn’t have the right temperament for competitions. That didn’t work for me — I don’t like playing in a situation where I’m being judged. I find that very difficult. What I realized, is that when I play I have to communicate something to people about the music, and competitions don’t feel like that kind of situation to me.
But you went to the Juilliard School.
I started college very young — I was 16 — but I dropped out and studied with a teacher in London who was not associated with a school. Then I came back and studied with Peter Serkin at Juilliard to finish my degree. He was a good balance to Juilliard, because I would go to his home; and it was all about music, not the business, not the career. Juilliard was just not conducive to me feeling good about myself.
It’s funny, there seems to be a little controversy about how I play the Aria. It seemed normal to me...
Which is strange, because you have played in environments that many people would find much less conducive — prisons and things like that.
But you know, playing in a prison or a retirement community or something like that, people are there for the music. They’re not there to see how many notes you can hit correctly. I still do these tours because they connect you to a really great audience of people who really want to hear this music. And a lot of them have never been to a classical concert before.
You raised the money for this CD yourself. Not uncommon these days, but still…
I think many of my friends have raised money or produced their own records; what’s unusual here is that Telarc picked it up. Everyone was telling me I should release it on my own label which is what a lot of musicians do. But I wanted it to reach a larger audience and I knew that I couldn’t do that by myself.
So this was a 15K gamble. And it’s paid off.
Yes, amazingly enough.
So you hired a hall, a Grammy-winning producer, and even the piano has an interesting story.
The piano is without doubt the best piano I’ve ever played. It’s a 1903 Hamburg Steinway that had been in England in the town hall of Hull, a seaport town. Hull was the second-most bombed city in England during war. The hall was devastated, but remarkably, the piano was untouched. After the war, many famed pianists came to Hull and played this piano to lift peoples’ spirits. Then Klavierhaus in NY bought it and brought it over here and restored it. And here in NY it was used the same way — this piano was played in the first concert in the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden when it was rebuilt after 9/11.
Your approach to the opening “Aria” seems to be a little slower than usual.
It’s funny, there seems to be a little controversy about how I play the Aria. It seemed normal to me… I think I was influenced by the piano, because this piano has an incredible lyrical quality; it can sustain notes in a way that’s very unusual. So you can play slow on this piano; it carries through. And I wanted it to be completely still — I didn’t want any movement in the Aria. I wanted it to be about sound, and space. And I think that happened.
Your version of the Goldberg Variations has a very “pianistic” quality. But of course the work was originally written for harpsichord. Do you see yourself as doing something a step away from “old school”?
Well, my favorite musicians are from the old school. Pianist like (Alfred) Cortot, Artur Schnabel, Dinu Lipatti, Myra Hess. I love their sound; it’s illuminating. But I’m drawn to anyone who plays with vitality, so there are some early music players whose playing I find really vigorous and imaginative too. I just think if I’m going to use a piano — especially this one — then I’m really going to use it. To me it’s about the beauty of the music; I’m not interested in the historical aspect. For me, the music lives today — I don’t see the point of trying to make it sound like a harpsichord.
On the one hand, this has all happened so fast. But it’s also been a long time coming. I mean, you were practicing these variations while you were pregnant, 5 or 6 years ago.
My poor son has heard this piece way too many times… But you know, I think that’s part of what makes this so special for me. I’ve worked hard a long time, trying to get by as a musician, and I feel like I’m incredibly lucky right now. I don’t even know what to say about it. Everything seems very magical at this moment.
What happened next was a perfect storm of critical acclaim and, even more unlikely for a previously unknown classical pianist, public enthusiasm. People who heard the record couldn’t wait to tell everyone else about it — and apparently, word spread fast. By the end of day 1, Dinnerstein’s Goldbergs was the #2 seller on the Amazon.com charts. Not the Classical charts, but the main music chart, ahead of the White Stripes and a host of other huge pop names. Unlike overnight sensations in the pop world, which literally do seem to materialize overnight and then vanish just as quickly, Simone Dinnerstein’s album has remained on Amazon’s Top 20 since its release date.
Why did all this happen so suddenly? Perhaps Dinnerstein’s piano chops impressed the more technically-minded listeners (listen to Variation 5, for example). Or maybe people were responding to her mystical, almost Zen-like approach to the work (check out the opening Aria). The pianist herself, in conversation, seems to be somewhat awestruck by it all — perhaps regarding it as yet another of music’s seemingly endless supply of mysteries.
You’ve said the Goldberg Variations are almost a religious experience for you.
Yes, it’s a piece that traverses a very long period of time — it takes about 80 minutes to play through. It’s a very meditative piece; and it requires a certain kind of stillness — to listen to it and to play it. When I perform it live, I feel like the audience can have an amazing experience because we so seldom sit for that long and really focus and listen like that.
Just a year ago you were a piano teacher in Brooklyn; this year you have the Front page of Slate.com, a big feature in the New York Times, a segment on NPR’s Morning Edition and a hit CD. And you did it all without following any of the usual rules for a classical pianist, which are: you become a teenage wunderkind, you win a major competition, you get signed to a major label and off you go. Why was your journey so circuitous?
Well I have to say, it wasn’t the plan. Of course, I wanted to do the normal route. But it didn’t work for me. As a child, I had a sensitive way of feeling music, but I wasn’t a prodigy, and I didn’t like practicing. And I just didn’t have the right temperament for competitions. That didn’t work for me — I don’t like playing in a situation where I’m being judged. I find that very difficult. What I realized, is that when I play I have to communicate something to people about the music, and competitions don’t feel like that kind of situation to me.
But you went to the Juilliard School.
I started college very young — I was 16 — but I dropped out and studied with a teacher in London who was not associated with a school. Then I came back and studied with Peter Serkin at Juilliard to finish my degree. He was a good balance to Juilliard, because I would go to his home; and it was all about music, not the business, not the career. Juilliard was just not conducive to me feeling good about myself.
Which is strange, because you have played in environments that many people would find much less conducive — prisons and things like that.
But you know, playing in a prison or a retirement community or something like that, people are there for the music. They’re not there to see how many notes you can hit correctly. I still do these tours because they connect you to a really great audience of people who really want to hear this music. And a lot of them have never been to a classical concert before.
You raised the money for this CD yourself. Not uncommon these days, but still…
I think many of my friends have raised money or produced their own records; what’s unusual here is that Telarc picked it up. Everyone was telling me I should release it on my own label which is what a lot of musicians do. But I wanted it to reach a larger audience and I knew that I couldn’t do that by myself.
So this was a 15K gamble. And it’s paid off.
Yes, amazingly enough.
So you hired a hall, a Grammy-winning producer, and even the piano has an interesting story.
The piano is without doubt the best piano I’ve ever played. It’s a 1903 Hamburg Steinway that had been in England in the town hall of Hull, a seaport town. Hull was the second-most bombed city in England during war. The hall was devastated, but remarkably, the piano was untouched. After the war, many famed pianists came to Hull and played this piano to lift peoples’ spirits. Then Klavierhaus in NY bought it and brought it over here and restored it. And here in NY it was used the same way — this piano was played in the first concert in the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden when it was rebuilt after 9/11.
Your approach to the opening “Aria” seems to be a little slower than usual.
It’s funny, there seems to be a little controversy about how I play the Aria. It seemed normal to me… I think I was influenced by the piano, because this piano has an incredible lyrical quality; it can sustain notes in a way that’s very unusual. So you can play slow on this piano; it carries through. And I wanted it to be completely still — I didn’t want any movement in the Aria. I wanted it to be about sound, and space. And I think that happened.
Your version of the Goldberg Variations has a very “pianistic” quality. But of course the work was originally written for harpsichord. Do you see yourself as doing something a step away from “old school”?
Well, my favorite musicians are from the old school. Pianist like (Alfred) Cortot, Artur Schnabel, Dinu Lipatti, Myra Hess. I love their sound; it’s illuminating. But I’m drawn to anyone who plays with vitality, so there are some early music players whose playing I find really vigorous and imaginative too. I just think if I’m going to use a piano — especially this one — then I’m really going to use it. To me it’s about the beauty of the music; I’m not interested in the historical aspect. For me, the music lives today — I don’t see the point of trying to make it sound like a harpsichord.
On the one hand, this has all happened so fast. But it’s also been a long time coming. I mean, you were practicing these variations while you were pregnant, 5 or 6 years ago.
My poor son has heard this piece way too many times… But you know, I think that’s part of what makes this so special for me. I’ve worked hard a long time, trying to get by as a musician, and I feel like I’m incredibly lucky right now. I don’t even know what to say about it. Everything seems very magical at this moment.
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