Q&A with Simone Dinnerstein

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein has always been in dialogue with the music of Bach—and it has always nourished her creative independence. Dinnerstein came to international attention in 2007 with her recording of the Goldberg Variations (Telarc), establishing her as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times).

That conversation has played out, in part, on the Miller stage. Dinnerstein has performed Bach at Miller since 2010—the first year of Executive Director Melissa Smey’s tenure. She has since appeared in programs ranging from Bach concertos to cantatas to solo recitals, as well as new music and everything in between. She curated Miller’s 2023-2024 Bach series, which featured performances with her string group, Baroklyn, which she founded and leads from the piano.

By pairing Bach’s Fifteen Inventions and Fifteen Sinfonias with works by renowned jazz pianists Brad Mehldau and Keith Jarrett on this solo program, Dinnerstein continues the dialogue and exploration of Bach’s—and her own—limitless bounds.

Katelyn: Tell me about your relationship with Miller Theatre. What is it like to be returning?

Simone: I've had a very special relationship with Miller Theatre. Melissa Smey has been a great supporter and encouraged me to develop as a musician.

We went even beyond my own playing. It's because of her that I founded Baroklyn. I told her my dream was to have an ensemble I could lead from the piano that could play Bach the way I wanted. And she said, well, let's make that happen. It started with a concert of Bach concertos from multiple keyboards. Each year, I pushed further in how I approached Bach’s music. It’s been a huge source of joy.

I also told her I was dreaming about standing up and conducting some of Bach’s choral music. It happened this past year for the first time at the Naumburg Bandshell: me conducting Baroklyn with a choir in Bach cantatas. I absolutely loved it.

Katelyn: You've said there are no rules when it comes to playing Bach—not exactly a prevailing philosophy. Where does that come from?

Simone: When I was nine, I started studying with Solomon Minkowski at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. [Bach’s] Inventions were too difficult for me—I started with the little preludes. After I learned to play one, we would listen to five or six recordings of it and discuss the interpretations. He was interested in the “golden age” of playing, like Edwin Fisher, Rosalind Turek, Myra Hess, Alexis Weissenberg.

Each pianist had a strong personality that was different from the next. We would always end with Glenn Gould, because Gould was a million miles away from all of them. Sometimes he would just laugh, because it was so different.

That was the first cell in how I thought about Bach. I've never felt that there was a correct or incorrect way to play Bach, and that's because of [Minkowski].

Katelyn: How did your teachers themselves approach Bach?

Simone: [Minkowski] was interested in a very parlando [a style of playing that suggests speech] style. Everything sang.

On the other end of the spectrum, my final teacher at Juilliard was Peter Serkin. There were more rules for him. In Bach, you'll have a long melismatic line of sixteenth notes—he did not want those notes to be played evenly. That meant varying the articulation, dynamics, or phrasing. He also had me write a list of descriptive words and then play the same passage thinking of each word. I loved that.

Katelyn: Bach's Inventions are considered a teaching piece, but you've said they keep getting harder. How has your relationship with them changed?

Simone: I've had stages of relationship with the Inventions. Many were too difficult for me when I was a kid. Your left hand is equal to your right, and it's hard to think equally between your hands.

Ten years ago, I decided I wanted to play them in concert, my first time as a mature pianist. And they're still difficult. There's something about how completely exposed both these lines are. They are deep pieces—not exercises, but poems. The challenge is to bring out the differences. There has to be something almost theatrical about them.

Katelyn: Let’s talk about Brad Mehldau’s Suite for Piano.

Simone: The premiere is going to be in Boston at Symphony Hall in October, so [the Miller program] will be the New York premiere.

Brad has composed for me before. The singer-songwriter Tift Merritt and I did a project together, and he wrote a beautiful song for us.

I asked if he could think about it in relationship to Bach—basically all his music is. This piece reminds me of Schubert's music. It is so beautiful and touching. The odd-numbered meters destabilize you rhythmically. When I'm working on it, I can picture how [Brad] would play it, and then how I would play it. He has some markings regarding pedaling which I don't agree with. I'm curious how that's going to play out.

I think it's going to be a major piano work.

Katelyn: What makes Bach’s Sinfonias so compelling?

Simone: As wonderful as the Inventions are, the Sinfonias are particularly stunning. They're more difficult than the two-part Inventions—even more difficult than The Well-Tempered Clavier—because the inner voice is divided between your hands. What is the expression? Two's a party, three's a crowd…

Two are always tightly interwoven, with a third in opposition. I find that interesting on a psychological level—they are constantly shifting their alliances. You have to make choices about the voicing: something has to be more in relief than the others. I'm always exhausted after I perform the Sinfonias.

Katelyn: Do you interpret them differently each time you return?

Simone: My tempo has changed a lot over the years. It's so odd how one tempo that felt completely right just feels wrong to me.

I've worked on Bach with dancers. They change their tempo from day to day—they don't even realize it. The music works at a wide variety of tempi…the main thing is a consistency of feeling that makes a tempo feel right.

Katelyn: How do you approach performance markings, when Bach’s music has so few?

Simone: What opened it up to me was working on the music of Philip Glass. Like Bach, Glass's music has very few markings. With music he wrote for me, when I've changed the tempo, dynamic, or voicing, he's always been open to it. One time he heard me perform Mad Rush and said, you play it completely differently than I do, but I like it.

Working on his music made me see the notes as a clean slate. Not just on a whim—I always look at the markings first. But if I feel the marking is getting in the way, then I change it.

I have taken to erasing loads of markings in any number of composers: Brahms, Beethoven. A few years ago, I was playing Charles Ives' Concord Sonata. I erased all his markings. Every single one.

And sometimes I change the notes. Less often, but I do sometimes. It's very liberating. So far nobody's ever said anything to me about it.

Katelyn: Keith Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo is something you've performed quite a bit.

Simone: It's an improvisation Keith Jarrett did in a concert once. It's mind-boggling that this was a free improvisation—it reads as a totally composed piece. I will be recording it next year.

The piece has this ostinato that makes it sound like a passacaglia. Jarrett recorded and performed so much Bach and Handel, and you hear the influence. It has “ghost notes”—notes where he's almost not playing them. They're hinted at. If you listen to his recording, you just barely hear them.

The biggest challenge is, why would I be playing his improvisation? I decided I was just not going to think about that anymore, and that I was going to play it as I would any other piece. There are elements of his recording that I'm trying to emulate, like rhythm and rubato. But now I'm developing it into something different. I hope it's still growing, because if it stops growing, then it's dead.

Katelyn: New music is also an important part of your practice. How is it in dialogue with Bach’s music?

Simone: It's clear to me how new music has been influenced by [Bach]. I like music that is both highly intricate and very human and emotional. The new composers I play tend to meld those worlds.

Bach’s music is incredibly contemporary. [It’s] the most brilliant you could encounter in terms of intellectual complexity: the mathematical symbolism and rules regarding counterpoint and fugues and canons and retrograde and diversions. Limitations enabled him—they were tools towards something beyond what we can describe.

The fact that jazz musicians, or heavy metal, or whatever, can incorporate his music...I don't think you could say the same thing about Chopin. The fact that Bach’s music can be felt so deeply by somebody from a completely different world signifies something timeless and incredibly forward-thinking.

Katelyn Simone is a writer, music journalist, and oboist. She has contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle and Classical Voice North America and is New York correspondent for San Francisco Classical Voice.

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