Thursday, March 12, 2020, 8 p.m. BACH FROM THE PIANO Bach Collection 2019-20 SEASON BACH FROM THE PIANO Bach Collection Kady Evanshyn, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Fischer, violin Alecia Lawyer, oboe Simone Dinnerstein, piano Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (1723) (arr. Hess, 1926) JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750) Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060 (1736) (arr. Fischer, 1970) Allegro Adagio Allegro Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 (1708-1715) (arr. Busoni, 1916) Cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82 (1727) Aria Recitativo Aria Recitativo Aria About the Program Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a gracious might find something to say something and thoughtful interview subject, the kind about that,” she said, “but it’s not what I of person with whom you look forward was thinking about.” to speaking because of the potential for The music of Johann Sebastian Bach meaningful dialogue and her utter lack (1685-1750)—quite possibly the greatest of pretension. When I called her to talk composer in the Western art music about Bach from the Piano, the three- tradition, the most renowned keyboard concert series she curated for Miller player of his day, and, by all accounts, an Theatre this winter, Dinnerstein was extraordinary improviser—originated congenial, but prefaced our conversation some 300 years in the past. It is nearly with something of a warning. “I’m not a impossible to speak about him without historian,” she said bluntly. “And I didn’t engaging deeply in music history—or put these programs together based on any so my inner musicologist would once historical research or theories.” have argued. I wasn’t surprised. When I’d talked Starting with the work of his to Dinnerstein about the single program biographer Julius August Philipp Spitta she performed at Miller a year ago, an (1841–1894), if not earlier with the imaginative mix of works by François revival of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion by Couperin, Robert Schumann, Erik Satie, Felix Mendelssohn in 1829, much of the and Philip Glass, she’d demurred, for discipline of musicology developed in example, on the particulars of Couperin’s order to engage with Bach as a historical Baroque-harpsichord treatise and subject: studying manuscript sources to Schumann’s notable Romantic angst, produce critical editions of his music, and preferring to talk instead about Glass, a unearthing documents that contribute contemporary composer who she knows to our understanding of his biography. personally. (Dinnerstein had recently Throughout the 20th Century, scholar- toured his Piano Concerto No. 3, written musicians have made it their life’s for her as a co-commission from twelve work to reconstruct his music through different orchestras, giving its New York historically informed performance premiere here at Miller Theatre.) on period instruments, an approach This year, when I asked her what we initially applied to works of the Medieval, might learn about the Baroque form of Renaissance, and Baroque periods, then the sonata through the repertoire on the gradually extended to the Classical and first Bach concert she programed for the Romantic eras. A fervor for charismatic series, she met my question with a flat and highly skilled performers such as reply and a hearty chuckle. “Well, you Jordi Savall, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, millertheatre.com and Sir Roger Norrington in the 1980s to me in an aesthetic and emotional way. and ‘90s demonstrated that the quest for I’m not thinking about whether or not his authenticity was not limited to wonky ornamentation is correct. Maybe someone academic exercises, but could be trendy, would say that it sounds beautiful because driving popular demand among classical he’s playing it the way it would have been music enthusiasts. played, but that’s not how I hear it. With this wealth of accumulated “I also love listening to Myra Hess,” knowledge on Bach—and, frankly, the she adds, referring to the British zealotry that sometimes accompanies pianist, whose Bach interpretations and it—one might be tempted to judge transcriptions were esteemed during unfavorably any the first half of the 20th musician who Century. “And I don’t neglects even a kernel “The tension for me is between think that there was of information, the music being an art form anything historically let alone someone living in the present and trying correct about how she with an unorthodox to recreate something that was playing.” approach. (Case in comes from the past.” Could it be that point: I remember a —Simone Dinnerstein Dinnerstein’s rise performance practice over the past decade course I took at the is evidence that the Eastman School of Music in the 1990s, pendulum has begun to swing the other during which our instructor played the way, returning Bach to those individual venerated 1955 Glenn Gould recording musicians confident in their aesthetic of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The liberty, and with a less historically specific example was so contrary to our way of vision of what his music should be? thinking that the room spontaneously Dinnerstein first made her mark with burst into laughter, deeming it absurd.) Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the imposing “I’ve definitely been accused of repertoire for her debut recording and one anti-intellectualism,” says Dinnerstein. that seemed to come out of nowhere. Yes, “Maybe it’s true. I don’t know. But that’s she was a Juilliard graduate with a solid not why I’m playing. I’m not playing the resume, but, by all accounts, her career piano to make a point; I’m playing it to had stalled. When she learned she was make music. pregnant in 2001, she set out to master “For instance,” she continues, “I think the Goldbergs before the baby arrived, a that Jordi Savall is an extraordinary monumental task. She eventually raised musician, and I love listening to the money to produce her own recording, everything that he does. But it’s speaking a risky move that paid off, landing her a Miller Theatre at Columbia University Weill Recital Hall debut, a manager, and at Miller Theatre in 2017. Joined on Bach a label. In 2007, that recording topped the from the Piano this year by a handful of Billboard Classical Chart in its first week select principal musicians on violin, cello, of sales. flute, oboe, and voice, Baroklyn offers the As Anne Midgette wrote for The New pianist an alternative to performing Bach York Times, “It is a distinctive approach as a solitary pursuit. to the work: colorful and idiosyncratic, “When I’m playing his music by a contemporary pianist’s rather than a myself,” explains Dinnerstein, “I hear harpsichordist’s account. It starts with a the sounds of different instruments. long, thoughtful, hesitant Aria that seems I’m juggling many voices and many to be struggling to lift itself uncertainly personalities. What really appeals to me out of silence.” about leading an ensemble is hearing Dinnerstein’s approach is also full of those sounds being played by different intention, grounded in her deep reading instruments in reality.” of musical structures and the desire to Dinnerstein built the series with Miller communicate with incredible clarity, Theatre’s Executive Director Melissa no matter the composer or the stylistic Smey around the group’s instrumentation, period. “I would probably say the same presenting a program of Bach Sonatas things to you if we were talking about (January 30), Bach Concertos (February Schumann or Copland,” she says. “The 13), and the Bach Collection (March 12), tension for me is between the music which brings together a handful of his being an art form living in the present and most celebrated works. trying to recreate something that comes A prolific composer, Bach served as from the past. That’s still a big argument the Cantor of the St. Thomas Church in in music today, much more than it was Leipzig (1723-50), contributing over 200 in the 1950s or ‘60s. Because if you listen cantatas to mark the Lutheran liturgical to different pianists playing Bach from calendar. Although some of the works that period of time, there was a very wide featured in Dinnerstein’s performances range of approaches, whereas the people with Baroklyn belong to that sacred playing today tend to have a much more context, including one exceptionally uniform approach.” poignant cantata, Ich habe genug, featured on the Bach Collection, the majority were played by members of the Collegium Musicum, an instrumental ensemble The same kind of devotion to making whose directorship Bach assumed from music that lives in the present guides 1729-39, despite an abundance of Dinnerstein’s new venture: Baroklyn, an other responsibilities. eleven-member string ensemble that she Drawing on professional musicians leads from the piano. The group debuted and highly accomplished university millertheatre.com students, the Collegium Musicum arrange the chorale prelude Erbarm dich gave ‘ordinaire’ concerts weekly, and mein, o Herre Gott, BWV 721 for piano ‘extraordinaire’ concerts for special and strings. This new work premieres occasions in the lively atmosphere of on Bach Concertos. Zimmerman’s coffeehouse (inspiring Bach “So often I see concerts put together to write, among other things, a ‘coffee in the spirit of, ‘Let’s hear all six cantata’). Not only did they perform music Brandenburg concertos together now,’” by Bach, but by other renowned composers says Dinnerstein. “There’s a place for of the day, including Georg Friedrich that, but we don’t have to present music Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann. in a way that’s encyclopedic. I’ve always According to Bach’s son, composer C.P.E. been interested in programs where I Bach, it was “seldom that a musical master can hear a variety of work for different passed through without getting to know instruments with different timbres, that my father and playing for him.” The group have different kinds of intentions and unquestionably fueled Leipzig’s vibrant meanings to them.” cultural scene, and gave Bach an outlet The programs Dinnerstein has curated for his extraordinary talents beyond the for Bach from the Piano are manifestations confines of the church.