Lise de la Salle - When Do We Dance? (2021) [Hi-Res]

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, the 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 Waltz 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, Rachmaninoff’s Polka italienne, and the Étude en forme de valse by Saint-Saëns.

As a luminous pendant to this amazing multi-journey to thefour 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" here divulges its secrets.