Broadway - Lafayette (Ravel, Lasser, Gershwin)

Simone Dinnerstein

"Broadway-Lafayette (Ravel, Lasser, Gershwin)"

A Celebration of France and America
With the Music of Ravel, Lasser and Gershwin

Conducted by Kristjan Järvi

On her new album, "Broadway-Lafayette (Ravel, Lasser, Gershwin)," pianist Simone Dinnerstein celebrates the time-honored transatlantic link between France and America through three different composers Maurice Ravel, George Gershwin and Philip Lasser. The title "Broadway-Lafayette" alludes to the French-American connection as the Marquis de Lafayette and his French troops helped the American colonists out the British during the American Revolution. Says Dinnerstein, 'Over the centuries, France and America have influenced and supported each other in many ways, and this music explores the link between the two cultures.' Dinnerstein performs quintessential American composer Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue which she feels is particularly present in Ravel's piano concerto masterpiece, Piano Concerto in G Major, written in 1929, the year after Ravel met Gershwin while on tour in the U.S. Philip Lasser is the son of a French mother and an American father who's musical voice is an amalgam of both worlds. Lasser's piece on the album, Circle and the Child, was written for Dinnerstein and this is its world premiere recording.

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is a searching and inventive artist who is motivated by a desire to find the musical core of every work she approaches. The Independent praises the 'majestic originality of her vision' and NPR reports, 'She compels the listener to follow her in a journey of discovery filled with unscheduled detours...She's actively listening to every note she plays, and the result is a wonderfully expressive interpretation.'