Pianist Martin James Bartlett first came to many people’s attention in 2014, when he won the BBC Young Musician Award. A Proms debut followed the next year, and a recording contract with Warner Classics not long after. To date, both of Martin’s albums on Warner have been centred around a unifying core concept - recital-recordings with a clear and thoughtful point to them.

His latest, La Danse, released on January 26th, is no different - and to tie in with this exploration of French dance-music for the piano, we thought we’d take the opportunity to dive more deeply with Martin into the broader place of the dance in classical music. Along the way, in addition to touching on the ideas that have moulded his albums to date, we encounter some whimsical musicological speculations on Couperin; Bacchus, Ariadne and ‘the wine situation’ make an appearance; and Martin explains why he’s content to do the dancing with his fingers and leave the fancy footwork to other people!

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