Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt at the Purcell Room

Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt
Purcell Room, 1 July 2013

If you follow this blog at all you'll know that I am a huge fan of singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. For me she is easily the equal of far more lauded artists such as Ryan Adams and Neko Case yet seems to remain largely unknown. She's already put out five superb country and folk inspired albums and earlier this year she released something entirely unexpected but equally wonderful: a collaboration with classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein that explored the connections between their very different musical backgrounds.
"This album was the journey we took to find each other musically," Dinnerstein says at the top of the show tonight, held in the perfect setting of the Purcell Room in the South Bank Centre. Although I've seen Tift play the piano live before tonight the stage looks very different with a large, imposing Steinway grand piano at the centre and Tift's little set-up of two battered-looking acoustics dwarfed by its side. It's a perfect visual representation in the contrast between their styles in fact and actually puts me at ease because I've actually never been to a classical concert before, so this was certainly a perfect introduction to a more formal, refined world.

The concert began with Merritt sitting to the side as Dinnerstein, looking very graceful in gray chiffon, performed a very poignant and beautiful piece by Schumann called In The Evening, perfectly setting the tone for the performance. Luckily I was seated at the front close to Dinnerstein herself and it was fascinating to watch her fingers float over the keys each note falling like drops of a waterfall. It was completely mesmerising and so light and fluid, incredibly different from watching a rock pianist. Probably the closest I've come to seeing anything like it was seeing Judy Collins perform last year but then she herself is a classically trained musician too.

Merritt then stepped into place, wearing brown cowboy boots, black mini dress and leather jacket, she completed the look with her trusty old guitar and played a gorgeous acoustic version of her track Only In Songs, her voice sounding more melancholy and pure in this setting. This seamlessly segued into the piano piece by Schubert, Night And Dreams, with Tift singing the English translation so full of tenderness and emotion, even adding in some harmonica so it almost turns into a plaintive Neil Young ballad. Bridging the gap indeed and hugely successfully too. The audience are still and silent throughout only finally clapping and cheering at the end of these three songs, as if we had all been under a completely captivating spell.

Rather appropriately, since they are playing the Purcell Room named after the English composer Henry Purcell, they then perform a very emotive Dido's Lament, making it almost sound like an old torch ballad following it with a Nina Simone-arranged version of the Billie Holiday song Don't Explain, demonstrating the breadth of styles encompassed in this project. 

Elsewhere they also were given room to each perform by themselves with Merritt explaining, "so you can compare for yourselves". Tift belted out a beautiful version of the traditional folk song Wayfaring Stranger (I must say her version is one of the best I've ever heard) and then took to the piano herself (which she admitted was intimidating after it had been played by Dinnerstein) but the result was a truly magnificent version of her song Small Talk Relations and to be honest Merritt isn't too bad on the piano herself even if, like she told us, she was only taught to play by ear by her dad. She finished up her solo section by singing Spring from her last album, which she said she had continously sung earlier this year during that seemingly unending winter, trying to finally urge spring along. "I realised if anyone could understand that feeling, it would be you guys", she quipped.

Dinnerstein then returned to the piano to play two Bach pieces: Prelude In B Minor and Allemande And Courante from French Suite No. 5 in G Major, and the later in particular was just amazing to watch and made it more than evident just why she became an overnight sensation in the classical world with her debut album of Bach interpretations. There was also a stunning version of The Cohen Variations from Dinnerstein and Merritt's album, Night, which Tift told us was written for her by composer Daniel Felsenfeld based on her favourite Leonard Cohen song (and mine too), Suzanne. I wonder if Cohen has heard it, I'm sure he would be equally stunned and thrilled.

Dinnerstein then explained how, in preparation for the project, she and Tift would send songs to each other and one, I Will Give My Love An Apple, Tift recognised as being sung to her as a child back in the South. Dinnerstein wanted then to try and play the song in more of the folk tradition Merritt had grown up in and decided to try and mimic the sound of a dulcimer by actually plucking the strings inside of the piano, which actually did evoke an Appalachian sound bizarrely enough and she continued this throughout Merritt's own song, Colors, to much success.

The concert finished with the two very different musicians collaborating on Tift's own track, Feel Of The World, and a song written specially for the album by the amazing Patty Griffin, Night, which also gave the record its name and was utterly haunting. The pair ended up on a cover of the Johnny Nash classic, I Can See Clearly Now, which not surprisingly Dinnerstein's delicate piano playing was the star of.  The short encore was a rendition of Gabriel Faure's Apres Un Reve, with Tift singing rather beautifully in French, giving the feel of an old time cabaret like something Piaf herself may have sung back in the 30s.

All in all in was a very elegant, lovely concert: a revelation to me to see such an incredible classically trained talent like Dinnerstein and experience it in the flesh but also to see how Merritt was able to adapt herself to such a different musical style and, together with Dinnerstein, create something both completely unique and utterly successful. Overall this was something very memorable indeed and a real treat of a concert.