Simone Dinnerstein and Zuill Bailey have performed together for more than a decade, and received the Classical Recording Foundation Award in 2006 and 2007. They have performed the Beethoven Sonatas for capacity audiences at The Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Of this recording, Simone Dinnerstein says "Learning Beethoven's complete works was the first major project that Zuill and I undertook when we began playing together as a duo. It is music we've lived with, mulled over, considered and reconsidered. Committing our interpretation to disc is a milestone in our ongoing journey together."

Zuill Bailey adds, "Beethoven's masterpieces for cello and piano represent arguably the greatest evolution of musical composition by one of the world's most remarkable and creative minds. The five sonatas and variations chronicle refined points in the early, middle, and late stages of his compositions. The works continue to parallel Simone's and my own musical journey. This recording of Beethoven's complete works is a true celebration of the first decade of our own personal musical evolution."

The Berlin Concert is a live recording of Ms. Dinnerstein's recital debut at the Kammermusiksaal of the Philharmonie in Berlin, which took place on November 22, 2007. The program features J.S. Bach's French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816; the world premiere recording of American composer Philip Lasser's Variations on a Bach Chorale; and Beethoven's landmark Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111. Grammy Award-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse is the producer and engineer for the CD.

Dinnerstein chose this program because of how the pieces speak to each another, and because of their relationship to the music of Bach. "My hope with this concert was to program a group of pieces that would contrast with and relate to each other, despite being separated by hundreds of years," she explains. "So much music written since Bach has been influenced by him, and the Beethoven and the Lasser recorded here are no exceptions. Philip Lasser's variations on the very dark Bach chorale, Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott (Take from us, Lord, Thou faithful God), draw on Bach's intense and meditative side. Lasser's writing is intricately crafted and encompasses a range of styles, from a contrapuntal energy reminiscent of Bach, to French Impressionism and even jazz. Beethoven's Opus 111 sounds surprisingly contemporary in this company. The first movement looks ahead to Liszt and the second movement, with its set of variations on a chorale-like arietta, looks back to Bach and ahead to jazz. All three works are densely layered, but also have a sense of freedom and directness of expression. Though they span almost 300 years, in many ways, to me, they each feel grounded in the present."

Simone Dinnerstein's solo debut CD was recorded in March 2005 with Grammy®-award winning producer Adam Abeshouse in the neoclassic auditorium of the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York.

In August 2007, the disc was released on Telarc, and earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical Chart during its first week of sales. It also appeared on "Best of 2007" lists including those of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Time Out New York, several radio stations, iTunes "Editor's Choice Best Classical," Amazon.com Best CDs of 2007, and Barnes & Noble's Top 5 Debut CDs of 2007. In September 2008, the recording received the prestigious Diapason d'Or Award.

The New York Times reported, "An utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation, Ms. Dinnerstein brings her own pianistic expressivity to the Goldberg Variations, probing each variation as if it were something completely new." Slate.com raved, "Dinnerstein is a throwback to such high priestesses of music as Wanda Landowska and Myra Hess . . . [She] is touring. Go hear her, and get religion. And if you can't, there's always the record."

Original artwork copyright Simon Dinnerstein.
Photos of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.
Photos of Simone Dinnerstein at the piano courtesy of Telarc.