Shostakovich, Liszt, Prokofiev: Piano Concertos

Lawrence Foster (Conductor), Libson Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra (Orchestra), Lise de la Salle (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Lise de la Salle
• Orchestra: Libson Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra
• Conductor: Lawrence Foster
• Audio CD (February 26, 2008)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naive
• ASIN: B000HD1OEG
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,271 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Her beautiful blue eyes are elsewhere ...", March 10, 2008

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich, Liszt, Prokofiev: Piano Concertos (Audio CD)

Lise de la Salle is a very young pianist from France who is getting the full-press treatment. The sentence fragment in the title, taken from the CD's booklet, goes on: "... Lise's gaze is intense and haunted." This sort of purple adman prose, coupled with the cover picture of what at first glance appears to be a porcelain doll, leads one to expect that she is simply one of those glamor babes who can't really play. Well, to the contrary, she can play very well. And indeed, having heard her in live performance, I can attest that the recordings she has made have not been manufactured in the studio. However, in reviews of previous recordings I have commented on some tendency on her part to play in a very mannered way, at least in some pieces.

This CD contains three spiritied concerti written by young composers. Both the Prokofiev and Shostakovich concerti were indeed written when they were still in conservatory. The Liszt was actually written when he was in his early forties but it was his first essay in the concerto form. All three concerti are brilliant in their effect, and in all three of them Mlle de la Salle makes a brilliant impression. She certainly has the chops for this virtuosic music. However ...

Once again we have some problems. The recorded sound becomes clattery at times. In a previous review I commented (and I heard in the recital I attended) that she never makes an ugly sound. But there are some ugly sounds on this recording and I think that must be the fault of the engineers or the piano technician. Perhaps a more mature and confident soloist would have refused to have the CD released on this account, but one can hardly expect a pianist not yet in her twenties to have that sort of presence of mind or the requisite clout with her handlers.

Also, the accompaniments by the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra under Lawrence Foster, while still generally musically acceptable, have more than the expected amount of poor intonation and ensemble. One wonders what these concerti would have sounded like accompanied by, say, the Vienna Philharmonic or indeed the Orchestre de Paris.

Bottom line: These performances certainly make it clear that Mlle de la Salle is a talented musician, although still somewhat callow, and that, as I've said before, she is a pianist to watch. I would venture to say that if she continues to have a career -- and how many young pianists have we seen become shooting stars, glowing briefly and then disappearing? -- she should record these three concerti again in ten or twenty years, and with a better orchestra and sound engineer. That might be something to treasure. But this issue is uneven enough, and in a field that has deep and outstanding competition, that I cannot give it more than a moderate recommendation.

Scott Morrison

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mannered, idiosyncratic playing and inert conducting, April 4, 2008

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich, Liszt, Prokofiev: Piano Concertos (Audio CD)

Astonishing critical opinions are common enough, especially from The Gramophone, but their piano expert greeted Lisa de la Salle's present CD with unmitigated joy -- and I found it nearly unlistenable. To her credit, the extremely fleet-fingered de la Salle, age 19, doesn't bang and harangue us. She's not out to be the next Argerich but almost the oppiste, a Gallic will-o-the-wisp. But cascades of light, pearly, luminous notes get tiresome after a very short while.

I can almost admire her attempt to drain the Liszt First Cto. of bombast, but let's face it, that's the nature of the score. The Shostakovich First is meant to be cheeky, vivacious, and urbane despite the circus-band atmosphere. Under the prosaic Norman Foster there's no atmoosphere at all, and de la Salle on her own can't find a point of view. Accounts by Bronfman and Argerich leave her in the shade. The best thing on this CD is the Prokofiev First, where de la Salle finds more muscle and thrust, but the Gulbenkian Foundation Orch. of Lisbon is barely second rate, and once again Foster offers little in the way of style or shape in the orchestral part.

There's a good deal of charm in de la Salle's playing as such,, but she's not helped by the pingy, clattery sound or by much else on this CD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a difference a few years can make, March 5, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shostakovich, Liszt, Prokofiev: Piano Concertos (Audio CD)

This is an unfortunate recording. It serves as a debut outing for the now 21 year old Lisa de la Salle playing the perky Shostakovich, lugubrious Liszt, and sparkling Prokofiev first piano concertos, made when the young and very talented de la Salle was a mere 18 years old. Unfortunately listening to this CD now after just having heard Lisa de la Salle perform a splendid, fresh air Prokofiev No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in collaboration with conductor James Conlon reveals just how forgettable is this recording. Not that de la Salle is anything but exciting here, but the quality of the CD and the shaky, insecure, poorly tuned Libson Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra and the lack of involvement of conductor Lawrence Foster suggests this CD be placed on the back shelf: surely this accomplished and very musical pianist will record at least the Prokofiev with a fine orchestra and conductor in the future.

As far as performance differences between this recording and the artist's current approach (at least for the Prokofiev) there is a big step upward. Her interpretation now is still full of the fleet fingered pyrotechnics, but now her conversations with the various first desk players in the orchestra are sensitive and communicative. She finds the flash but she also pauses for the poetry. Keep eyes on this young beauty - she has a strong career ahead of her. It is rewarding to hear the growth of a fine young artist this experience has granted! 4 stars for the pianist, 1 for the orchestra and conductor and engineers. Grady Harp, March 10