Lise de la Salle - When Do We Dance?

Believe Recordings

£15.12
~~£16.16~~

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: V5468
Barcode: 0822186054680
Release Date: 4th June 2021
Genre: Classical

 Four years after her boundary-breaking album ‘Bach Unlimited’, pianist Lise de la Salle presents an extremely personal odyssey inspired by her love of the dance and her fascination with the period 1850 to 1950.
 More than just a question, Lise de la Salle’s ‘When Do We Dance?’ is an invitation to a voyage, “one that explores the different ways in which dance takes possession of the body.” A voyage in time, through a whole century (1850-1950) with the accent on modernity; a voyage over the oceans, from North America to Eastern Europe, criss-crossing Argentina, Spain, France, Hungary and Russia; a voyage to the very core of rhythm, that essential anchor point for the dance as for music in general, that enlivens the ragtimes of Gershwin and Bolcom, Bartók’s folk dances, a waltz by Saint-Saëns and a tango by Stravinsky.
 Pursuing her synchronic route with radiant versatility, this French pianist moves freely around the globe, encompassing diverse cultures with as much poetry as virtuosity, by turns setting the piano aflame with sensuality in Ginastera’s Argentine Dances, making it sound impishly seductive in 1930s swing, exquisitely refined in Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, or powerfully romantic in a Valse by Scriabin.
 There are evergreens, such as Art Tatum’s take on Tea for Two, Gershwin’s When Do We Dance? and the Ritual Fire Dance by de Falla. There are also several less familiar pieces to discover: Stravinsky’s Tango, Rachmaninov’s Polka italienne and the Étude en forme de valse by Saint-Saëns.
 As a luminous pendant to this amazing multi-journey to the four corners of the globe, we can read a declaration of love: Lise de la Salle’s own tribute to the art of the dance that has forever fascinated her. To her own wonderment, at the piano she finds dance simply flowing through her and she is constantly learning from it, this pianist for whom “dance is a pleasure to be shared with others,” as it divulges its secrets.

Tracklisting:
America
George Gershwin 1898-1937 When Do We Dance?
Art Tatum 1909-56 Tea for Two
William Bolcom b.1938
Three Ghost Rags Graceful Ghost Rag
Fats Waller 1904-43 Vipers Drag

Argentina
Astor Piazzolla 1921-92 Libertango
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera 1916-83 Argentine Dances op.2 Dance of the Old Cowherd / Dance of the Delightful Young Girl / Dance of the Cunning Gaucho

Spain
Manuel de Falla 1876-1946 Love the Magician Ritual Fire Dance

France
Maurice Ravel 1875-1937 Valses nobles et sentimentales Modéré, très franc / Assez lent, avec une expression intense / Modéré / Assez animé / Presque lent, dans un sentiment intime / Vif / Moins vif / Épilogue, lent
Camille Saint-Saëns 1835-1921 Six Études op.52 Étude en forme de valse
Claude Debussy 1862-1918 Mazurka

Hungary
Béla Bartók 1881-1945 Six Romanian Folk Dances Sz. 56 Stick Dance / Sash Dance / In One Spot / Dance from Bucsum / Romanian Polka / Fast Dance

Russia
Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971 Tango
Alexander Scriabin 1872-1915 Waltz in A flat major op.38
Sergei Rachmaninoff 1873-1943 (transcription Vyacheslav Gryaznov) Polka italienne