Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert

Simone Dinnerstein (Artist, Conductor, Performer), Bach (Composer), Schubert (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Simone Dinnerstein
• Conductor: Simone Dinnerstein
• Composer: Bach, Schubert
• Audio CD (January 31, 2012)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: SONY MASTERWORKS
• ASIN: B006JDD80Q
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > New Age > Instrumental
  • #5 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > By Period > Classical (c.1770-1830)
  • #5 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Classical (c.1770-1830) > Forms & Genres

Editorial Reviews

Simone Dinnerstein's new album, Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert, combines J.S. Bach s Partitas Nos. 1 and 2, with Schubert's Four Impromptus, Op. 90, and was produced by Grammy Award winning producer, Adam Abeshouse. Dinnerstein says of her new album, "Bach and Schubert, to my ears, share a distinctive quality. Their non-vocal music has a powerful narrative, a vocal element. The effect is that of wordless voices singing textless melodies. Bach and Schubert s melodic lines are so fluent, so expressive, and so minutely inflected that they sound as though they might at any moment burst suddenly into speech." Inspired by lines from Philip Larkin s poem, The Trees, Simone Dinnerstein brings her own unique voice to Bach s first two Partitas and Schubert's Four Impromptus revealing the inherent vocal qualities in these instrumental works.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous - a conversation, February 1, 2012

By 

O. (Haddonfield, NJ, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert (Audio CD)

I just received the new Simone Dinnerstein album, "Something Almost Being Said". Thank you Amazon pre-ordering and prime shipping for presumably allowing me to be the first on my block to get it. I listened to it in the car on the way to and from work today and it is gorgeous. There are the Four Schubert Impromptus sandwiched in between 2 Bach Partitas. The Partitas are exquisite - every entering voice is articulated and all the voices are so well defined and phrased. They are superb. Ms Dinnerstein takes a slower tempo in the 1st and 2nd Impromptu, which I am still pondering, but what it does in the 1st Impromptu is give a big emotional punch to the phrase endings - you are on the edge of you seat at each phrase (which makes driving a tad tricky). It is meditational - pensive - quiet and reverential. The album is well named because what Ms. Dinnerstein achieves in all three pieces is an intimate conversation - a tête-a-tête between her, the composer and us, the audience. We are drawn into this conversation as we hear the voices of the fugues drift in and out or Schubert's arching, seemingly endless melodic phrases float over those gentle waves of accompaniment. This is a CD to listen to over and over - you will hear something new each time. I had the honor to hear Ms. Dinnerstein play the Goldberg Variations in Philadelphia a year ago and it leaves you breathless to see such towering intellectual achievement along with such finely tuned sensitivity and expressiveness. Thank you! Oh - and buy the physical CD - the poem and artwork in the notes are a joy.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner, February 1, 2012

By 

Jimmy Hayes "Jim" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert (Audio CD)

Ms. Dinnerstein's playing of the Schubert Op. 90 is great. She delivers thunder when it's needed and yet plays as delicately as a mourning dove almost in the same breath.
Her Bach continues to fascinate me. She plays Bach as uniquely as Glenn Gould did, but in a different direction. I have listened to these Partitas for years and yet her interpretation makes them sound nearly like new pieces, especially the C minor.
Some of the old hardliners might have an issue with the way she markets her CDs with photos of her everywhere either dreaming at the piano or gliding through the forest, but you know what? She's a doll and they can put all the photos of her they want on the disc cover. And if it helps sell more CDs I say good for her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vocal Bach on the Piano, February 20, 2012

By 

Johan - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Something Almost Being Said: Music of Bach and Schubert (Audio CD)

Simone Dinnerstein is a unique advocate for Bach on the piano. In this, her latest CD, "Something Almost Being Said," there is not a mechanically played note in either of the Partitas 1 and 2. Bach's melodic lines sound like vocal arias. Her layered 'diminuendo' in the second section of the Gigue from the Partita in B-flat is alone worth the price of the CD. A bonus for the listener is very personal performances of four Schubert Impromptus.