Piano Virtuoso Simone Dinnerstein Performs Mozart
Celebrated Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang continues her tenure (now extended through to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's 2023-2024 season) with a dynamic, one-night-only program of Walton and Mozart, welcoming pioneering American pianist Simone Dinnerstein to the stage for the latter's simply sublime Piano Concerto No. 23.
The evening begins with Sir William Turner Walton's Suite No. 2 from Facade, an instrumental suite that accompanies the poems of British poet Edith Sitwell, an unconventional pairing which scandalized the audience when they first debuted in 1923. This is followed by Dinnerstein's immaculate interpretation of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto, a bittersweet piece filled with mellifluous melancholy and moving heartbreak. Things then take a familiar turn with one of the composer's most celebrated works - the glorious Symphony No. 40, which is packed to the rafters with iconic moments including its now ubiquitous opening movement and frenzied, electrifying finale.