Lise de la salle - Biography


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BIOGRAPHY
	With concentration. On the essential. Lise de la Salle remains true to herself. Portrait by Manuel BRUG, Music editor of Die Welt Berlin Lise de la Salle was born in 1988, in the northern French town of Cherbourg. Her family background involves both painting and vocal music (her mother sings in choirs). Lise declared her passion for the piano at the early age of four; when she quickly showed extraordinary gifts, she followed the path already marked out for her. Private lessons and her first competition successes led her to her main teacher Pascal Nemirovski, with whom she studies Russian repertoire in particular. The seven piano concertos she currently plays in public include one each by Prokofiev and Shostakovich (their respective First Concertos). At the same time, Lise de la Salle was given exceptional permission to attend the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique-CNR in Paris from the age of eleven. After graduating with honours in 2001 in the class taught by Pierre Réach, she transferred to Bruno Rigutto's advanced class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique- CNSMDP. She has also received precious artistic counselling from Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux. Her public career began at the early age of nine, when she played in a concert broadcast by Radio France. It has continued to develop, without excess, through a highly selective programme of podium appearances. Even today she rarely makes more than twenty in a year. She played her first concerto Beethoven's no.2, learnt in just a few days in Avignon at the age of thirteen, bravely standing in for another pianist, with dazzling results. Lise de la Salle is always ready for such adventures provided they remain the exception. Another adventure was her first CD for Naďve. The success of this critically acclaimed coupling of Rachmaninoff and Ravel led to an exclusive recording contract with the label.
After a number of first prizes elsewhere, her Special Prize at the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York led to a series of concert appearances in the key American musical centres. In the same year she made debuts in Japan and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. She has also recently been a much-fęted guest at the French summer Mecca for pianists, the Festival of La Roque d'Anthéron in Provence. Thus Lise de Salle continues unswervingly on her path. With her equal admiration for the calculated perfection of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and the almost uncontrolled passion of Maria Callas, she wants to make the piano sing and at the same time to evoke the rich colours of the orchestra. Not as some egocentric transgressor and thus allow the colours of the orchestra to be forgotten. Not as some egocentric transgressor of the bounds of the keyboard, but as a true musician with a precocious (though certainly still perfectible) mastery of balance. An artist whose eyes and fingers are currently engaged, above all, in expanding the limits of her repertoire.
Concentration on the essential. Can one expect that of a sixteen-year-old girl? Lise de la Salle is sixteen. She is serious, and concentrates on the essential. The piano is her means of expression; she can say more with it than she can in words. She aware of the long and hallowed musical tradition to which she belongs; she knows all about greatness, seriousness and dignity. Yet much still lies before her. Now she plays with the tools available to her. She does not want to dazzle and glitter, to seduce and pretend. She wants to be herself. And that means . . . concentration on the essential, on her present capacities. A readily intelligible, yet exquisitely realised pianistic universe. Light and filigree, even angular in her touch; supremely at ease, yet sometimes also bold in technical display; gracefully balanced in matters of rhythm; measured in her dynamics. Her attitude is by no means recklessly subjective, but rather highly astute, wholly sincere, perfectly suited to her present purposes. Restrained, even reserved from time to time, never childishly naive, but intelligent and clear. Lise de la Salle can do many things, and knows even more. Yet she does not flaunt her talents; she integrates moments of virtuosity in an overall context, cultivating a piano sound that is sufficient unto itself yet unfolds with great richness. With her, 'austerity' does not signify 'plainness', but consciousness of the essential, insofar as that is available to an artist of precociously mature gifts. Not for its own sake, but as an act of communication. Lise de la Salle wants to speak through the piano, perhaps also to convey things that, at her present age, she cannot express verbally. Thus her playing constantly gains in depth of sound, in passion, in ineffability and there sitting in front of us is a sixteen-year-old, earnest but smiling, no over-drilled child prodigy, but not a finished artist either. A questing spirit, full of humility and curiosity, of astonishment and joy in what she has already achieved and discovered. Sure of herself creatively yet open-minded, perfectly controlled in her playing yet not content to stick to the status quo.	Photo : Patrick Berger
Wonderful moments of an artist in the making; promise of so much still to come. Just as nothing in her playing appears excessively rushed or overdriven, so the steady growth of Lise de la Salle's career shows a careful sense of responsibility. What counts is not meteoric success, but staying power. And that career has been accompanied right from the start by a benevolent astonishment, a knowing delight, on the part of both professionals and the general public. There is nothing hysterical about this: her admirers constantly look forward to seeing what new shores she will reach, what the future holds for her by way of new discoveries, maturity and daring. Translation: Charles JOHNSTON
	Lise de la salle Biography Lise de la Salle, born in 1988, gave her first concert at the age of 9 at Radio France. After winning many competitions in France, she was awarded First Prize at the seventh Ettlingen International Competition in Germany. She is also prize winner of the Fondation d'entreprise Groupe Banque Populaire-Natexis and won successively First Prize of the European Young Concert Artists in Paris in 2003 and First Prize of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in new York in 2004. In 1988, Lise de la Salle met Pascal Nemirovski who formed her. In parallel, she graduated in 2001 from the Conservatoire Supérieur-CNR of Paris with the Premier Prix in Pierre Reach's class; in September 2003, Lise de la Salle was admitted to the postgraduate cycle of Bruno Rigutto at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. She also follows advice of Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux. Since 2001, her engagements have led her to the largest halls in Europe, America and Japan, like as the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Herkulessaal in Munich, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, Grand Auditorium in Lisboa, Tonhalle in Zurich, Metropolitan Art Space in Tokyo, Philharmonia in Saint Petersburg, Lincoln Center in Washington, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Philharmonia in Berlin... Lise de la Salle also participated in several European festivals, including performances as soloist with the Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron, the Bad Kissingen Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the George Enesco Festival in Bucarest and the Festival de Saint Denis...
Lise de la Salle is invited by orchestras such as: the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Schleswig Holstein Orchestra, the WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Kanazawa Ensemble, the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, the Saint Petersburg Symphonic, the Pasadena Symphonic Orchestra as well as the Deutsches Symphonieorchester. Among the conductors she has worked with are: Lawrence Foster, Jun Märkl, Moshe Atzmon, Arie Van Beck, Alexander Dmitriev, Jaja Ling, Semyon Bychkov, James Gaffigan and Keith Lockhart. Her first recording with works by Ravel and Rachmaninov received critical acclaim and marked the beginning of her collaboration with the label Naïve Classique, for which she exclusively records since 2002. Her second recording of works by Bach and Liszt was selected Gramophone Recording of the Month (awarded in August 2005 the "Editor's Choice" by GRAMOPHONE, the world's best classical music magazine). Two new recordings mark the 2007 year. "Concertos NĄ1" (Shostakovich, Liszt, Prokofiev) with Maestro Lawrence Foster and the Gulbenkian Orchestra as well as a double CD, dedicated to Mozart and Prokofiev which includes the DVD : " Lise de la Salle, Majeure ! " directed by Jean-Philippe Perrot. The cd was awarded "Editor's Choice" by GRAMOPHONE and "BBC Music Magazine Choice" by BBC Music Magazine. Lise de la Salle was invited to perform the opening concert of the 2006/2007 season in Cologne under Semyon Bychkov and could be heard with concerts in Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Washington, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and London, Wigmore Hall. In 2007-2008 Lise de la Sallle will be heard with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, at the Great Performers Series of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, followed by concerts in Montréal, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Munich Herkulessaal, Stuttgart Liederhalle. Lise de la Salle will debut at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, at the Frankfurt Alte Oper and at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Download the Biography (pdf)