Hourglass Album Review – Simone Dinnerstein gives the Glass Room a break | Classical music

Gahead of next year’s 90th birthday celebrations, American pianist Simone Dinnerstein presents two works written by Philip Glassperforming with his string band. Baroklyn – the name combines his Brooklyn home and the ideas of JS Bach – takes a path away from the composer’s minimalist tics. Their goal is to mimic the passage of time like sand through an hourglass (hence the title) rather than cutting music into sections like the hands of a clock. And it works.

Arranged by Michael Riesman, Suite from Hours splices Glass’s score for Stephen Daldry’s film into almost three moving songs. The poignancy of the story and its poetry are accompanied by piano, strings, harp and celesta, while Dinnerstein elevates the mood by adopting a slower tempo than a movie soundtrack.

Another work here is the Tirol Concerto from 2000, the first concerto Glass wrote for piano. Bach does not stay too far away from the powerful external movement, but the jewel in the crown is the centerpiece of the elegy. “Each iteration is based on what has happened and the prospect of what’s to come,” writes Dinnerstein in his perceptive, refreshing approach that allows this interpretation to rest.

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