Four years after Lise de la Salle‘s “compelling and dynamic” (The Guardian) Bach Unlimited, Naïve Classiques will release When Do We Dance? – the pianist’s tenth album for the label – on June 4, 2021. A “musician of considerable expressive range as well as technical fortitude,” (Washington Classical Review), de la Salle performs works by Gershwin, Tatum, Bolcom, Fats Waller, Piazzolla, Falla, Ginastera, Falla, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Bartók, Stravinsky, Scriabin and Rachmaninov in this deeply personal program inspired by a lifelong love of dance.
 
“I’ve been surrounded by dance since childhood, and I adore it,” says De la Salle. “But with so many dances and so much music to play, I could take ten albums to tell this whole story. So, I decided to focus on one century but travel the world.” De la Salle specifically focused on the 100-year period between 1850-1950. “For me it is the most fascinating period in the history of all the arts,” she says. “It was a time of great freedom, not just in music, but in dance, painting and theater. There were new rules and new techniques, and the creators were starting to feel that they could express themselves in a different way. There was this great explosion of potential.”   
 
“My number one focus when performing is to tell a story, and to take my audience on a journey with me,” she adds. When Do We Dance? invites listeners on a journey through this period from North America to Eastern Europe, traversing Argentina, Spain, France, Hungary and Russia to “explore the different ways in which dance takes possession of the body.” De la Salle’s program encompasses diverse cultures and musical styles, from the ragtimes of Gershwin and Bolcom and Art Tatum’s take on Tea for Two; to Ginastera’s Argentine Dances; to Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance and Bartók’s folk dances; to waltzes by Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Scriabin; to Rachmaninov’s Polka italienne and a tango by Stravinsky.
 
“Each country, each continent has its own personality and sound,” says De la Salle. “The Jazz pieces which open this CD, could never be considered monochrome: it vibrates to the iridescent colors of the rainbow, subtly diffracting the shimmering colors. The colors become sharper and more distinct as you travel through the different countries. In South America, music is extremely sensual and requires a physical, almost palpable, sound matter, as if the piano was the continuation of the body – as in Spain, which forms the link between the Americas and Europe. Then we come to France, where the color inevitably changes: the repertoire requires a very clear, crystalline sound – the color of champagne. Finally Bartók and the Russians are in a passionate and very expressive register – it’s a warm red, the color of the heart.”
 
A first listen of When Do We Dance from Naïve can be found HERE

About Lise De La Salle
Since 2001, Lise de la Salle’s impressive international career has taken her to the finest concert halls in Europe, the United States and Asia. These include the Berlin Philharmonic, New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Beijing’s Grand National Theatre, the KKL in Luzern, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Philharmonic in Saint Petersburg, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. She has performed with the greatest orchestras and conductors from all over the world.

Her first CD devoted to Ravel and Rachmaninoff in 2002, unanimously hailed by critics, marked the start of her partnership with the Naïve label. Eight more CDs followed, all of which won numerous prizes and received excellent critiques, then Bach Unlimited, released in 2017. In 2013, her CD A Portrait, released together with a DVD (Lise de la Salle au Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord), marked her tenth anniversary with Naïve. Also noteworthy is her complete recording of Rachmaninoff concertos with the Zurich Philharmonic and Fabio Luisi (Philharmonia Records, 2015). Lise de la Salle was born in 1988 and began playing the piano at the age of four, giving her first concert, broadcast live by Radio France, at age nine. At thirteen, she made her debut with Beethoven’s second concerto. Between 1997 and 2004 she won numerous competitions (notably first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York in 2004). From 1998 to 2006 she studied with Pascal Nemirovski. She also attended advanced classes at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSMDP), and had the immense privilege of receiving advice from Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux.
 

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