When Do We Dance?
; Tatum: Tea for Two; Bolcom: Graceful Ghost Rag; Waller: Vipers Drag; Piazzolla: Libertango; Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas, Op. 2; Falla: El amor brujo; Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales; Saint-Sans: tude en forme de valse; Debussy: Mazurka, L. 67; Bartk: Romanian Folk Dances; Stravinsky: Tango; Scriabin: Waltz in A flat major, Op. 38; Rachmaninov: Polka Italienne in E flat major  Lise de la Salle (piano)  Nave V5468 73:08 mins  Advertisement  Born 33 years ago in Cherbourg, Lise de la Salle is a bit of an enigma. Its an understatement to say she looks striking: she radiates bad-girl teenage wildness alternating with a timeless porcelain purity, and her big, widely-spaced eyes suggest an animal hyper-alertness which is richly borne out by her playing. When her fingers are filmed from above, as in the CD-DVD release  Lise de la Salle: A Portrait, they move with a speed and precision not granted to those of ordinary mortals. Her beginnings were fairly prodigious, but the variety of her teenage repertoire was more so, as were the accolades heaped on her recording of the first concertos of Liszt, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich when she was 20. Musically shes a chameleon, capable of completely changing her colour at the drop of a hat, and that versatility is what makes this new recording such a success. She says that as a little girl she was always mad about dance, and regards its melding of rhythm and movement as fundamental to life. Wanting to celebrate it, she hit on a fertile historical period  1850 to 1950  as the focus for a century of dances from all round the world. Its a neat idea, which she carries out with panache. Whether the pulse is stable or unstable, strong or discreet, slow or fast, she says, the structure of every piece depends on the quality of its inner rhythm.  She adds that she has huge respect for their composers scores: I have tried to understand these pieces in order to make them mine.  Her list of composers may look at first blush too heterogeneous, but in fact it works an absolute treat. At one end of her spectrum sit Art Tatums Tea for Two and Fats Wallers Vipers Drag, and comparing her performances with those available to listen to on YouTube one finds that she has transcribed their performances, not only note for note but even in their tiniest inflections. Yet she manages  to catch the spirit of the originals so accurately that, listening blind, you wouldnt know who was playing: she and they have the same easy virtuosity, the same eagerness and appetite for life. At the other end of her spectrum sit Saint-Sanss crowd-pleaser tude en forme de valse  in which de la Salle tosses out dazzling technical flourishes  and Ravels Valses nobles et sentimentales which she delivers with gentle grace. Three of Ginasteras Danzas Argentinas  one edgy and frantic, one languid and lazy, one volcanically energised  sit beside de Fallas Danza ritual del fuego. Bartks Romanian Folk Dances may be slightly over-domesticated, but they have winning charm and Stravinskys Tango  all chopped and squashed chords  may be anchored to the spot, but it builds a massive muscular tension in its three-minute span. This recording is a wonderful tour de force. Advertisement  Michael Church