Orange Mountain Music is proud to announce the availability of pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s new album A Character of Quiet featuring music by Philip Glass and Franz Schubert. Known internationally for her concerts and recordings (among others her widely celebrated recording of the Goldberg Variations), Simone Dinnerstein was also the pianist for whom Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto no.3 in 2017 which was released the following year by OMM on the album Circles: Piano Concertos by Bach and Glass.

The pandemic year of 2020 has struck hard at the heart of every human activity. Dinnerstein commented, “My experience of the pandemic was hardly unique in that it dramatically restricted my world. My son came back from London. My husband started working from home. All of my travel and concerts were cancelled. Time seemed to stop.”

It was during this time at home in Brooklyn, while reading Wordsworth’s poetry that the resolve came over her to record Franz Schubert’s masterpiece Sonata in B flat major, D960, along with selected Philip Glass Piano Etudes.

Set against the backdrop of protests and violence taking place across America including all over New York City, Dinnerstein and her producer Adam Abeshouse embarked on multiple sessions during which Abeshouse would cross the city to record Dinnerstein in her own home. “I felt very lucky to be able to stay in one place with my family but, candidly, lockdown did not make me feel creative or productive. It made me anxious and enervated.” For the first time in her creative life Dinnerstein wasn’t playing the piano. “It was Adam who talked me back into music. He wondered whether my retreat from music might have led to new places artistically, and he pointed out that I had always wanted to record on my own piano, my favorite instrument.”