Lise de la Salle performs free concert at Brooks Center
French pianist Lise de la Salle is speaking on the phone from Paris and marveling at the genius of Beethoven.
Her current fascination is Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32, which she’ll play Tuesday in a free solo recital at Clemson University’s Brooks Center.
Beethoven was completely deaf and five years from his death when he composed the two-movement work, his last piano sonata.
The German composer presumably couldn’t hear a single note as he painstakingly created a piece that has become a cornerstone of the classical piano repertoire.
“It’s astonishing,” De la Salle said. “It’s an amazing gift he gave us.”
De la Salle, 27, one of the brightest young stars on the international classical music scene, will also perform challenging works by Brahms, Liszt and Ligeti as a part of the 30th anniversary of the Brooks Center’s Utsey Chamber Music Series.
Beethoven is the composer who De la Salle, who called herself “an old soul in a young body,” feels closest to right now.
“I love Beethoven so much because his music is always full of life,” De la Salle said. “You can feel this crazy energy, something really powerful in his music.”
Of the Sonata No. 32, De la Salle said, “It’s such a monster piece. The first movement is full of drama and energy. The second movement is so bright and sunny and incredibly peaceful. It’s crazy to find so much in one piece.”
De la Salle spoke to the Greenville News a few days before embarking on a month-long U.S. tour followed by concerts in Japan, Switzerland and France that will keep her on the move through early December. She was in Paris, her former home base, for only a few days to visit friends and family.
“My schedule is super-crazy,” she said with a laugh. “I’m running all the time.”
De la Salle, who first caught international attention with a Bach/Liszt recording she made at age 16, has performed with many of the world’s top orchestras, including the London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles symphonies.
De la Salle recently released a CD of piano works by Schumann. Over the course of several months, she also recorded all of Rachmaninoff’s works for piano and orchestra in live concerts with conductor Fabio Luisi — for release later this year.
De la Salle’s Brooks Center program is notably expansive and demanding, with major works to challenge a virtuoso’s technique.
“They’re all crazy,” De la Salle said, again laughing.
In addition to the Beethoven sonata, De la Salle will perform several dazzling Liszt transcriptions Tuesday. Brooks Center director Mickey Harder, an accomplished pianist herself, requested that De la Salle play the transcriptions that are based on arias and orchestral works by such composers as Mozart and Wagner.
She’ll jump ahead to the 20th century to perform a few etudes by the Romanian-Austrian composer Gyorgi Ligeti.
De la Salle, who most often favors music from the 19th century, is taking on the prickly Ligeti pieces for the first time.
“To tell you the truth, I’m a little nervous,” she said. “I’m really excited about it but it’s a totally new adventure for me. We’ll see how it goes!”
De la Salle’s performance concludes with Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme of Handel,” a piece that begins simply and grows increasingly elaborate and virtuosic.
“I will only play music that touches me,” De la Salle said. “I won’t play something just because of the challenge.”
De la Salle, who began playing piano at age 4, was born in Cherbourg and lived in Paris several years before relocated to New York City earlier this year.
“I first visited New York when I was 16 years old and I promised myself that I would live there one day,” De la Salle said. “I love the energy and the feeling that everything is possible there and everybody is on the go.”
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YOU CAN GO
What: Pianist Lise de la Salle
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Clemson University’s Brooks Center
Tickets: Admission-free
Information: 864-656-7787 or www.clemson.edu/Brooks