NEWS

Concert review about Lucas performance with Russian National Orchestra and maestro Mikhail Pletnev in Cologne Philharmony.
www.ksta.de/kultur/klassik-eintauchen-in-poetische-tiefen-29997458 ... See MoreSee Less

Klassik: Eintauchen in poetische Tiefen

ksta.de

Um Tempo-Konventionen schert sich Mikhail Pletnev nicht viel, ganz gleich, ob er am Klavier sitzt oder - wie jüngst - im philharmonischen Meisterkonzert am Pult seines Russian National Orchestra steh...

2 weeks ago

Lucas' concert with Russian National Orchestra and maestro Mikhail Pletnev is starting soon. It is possible to follow it in the Arte Concert.
www.arte.tv/fr/videos/082114-000-A/lucas-debargue-et-l-orchestre-national-de-russie/ ... See MoreSee Less

Lucas Debargue et l'Orchestre national de Russie | ARTE Concert

arte.tv

3 weeks ago

Séance spéciale en présence de Lucas Debargue et Martin Mirabel, Lucas Debargue : Tout à la musique mardi prochain, le 3 avril, à 20h30, au Cinéma Le Balzac à Paris (1, rue Balzac, 75008 Paris) Vous pouvez réserver vos places sur le site du Balzac : balzac-paris.cotecine.fr/balzac-programme/reserver/
Special screening with Lucas Debargue and Martin Mirabel "Lucas Debargue : To Music", April 3rd, at 8.30 p.m., cinema Le Balzac, Paris. Online reservation here :
balzac-paris.cotecine.fr/balzac-programme/reserver/ ... See MoreSee Less

Lucas Debargue : Tout à la musique

4 weeks ago

Concert critics about Lucas' recital in Moscow.
Voici une critique du récital de Lucas à Moscou.
musicseasons.org/takoj-li-eto-shopen-i-est-li-dzhaz-v-betxovene/
English resume:
Lucas Debargue had a recital in Moscow with the works of Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven on 5th and 6th of March. Audience’s interest in him has not faded: he had the full house on both evenings, not only in Moscow but also later with the same program in St. Petersburg 12th of March. As it is quite typical to his concerts, it was followed by a big bang in local social networks, a lot of debates arose. There were questions - especially among certain part of the audience like - is it really possible to interpret Chopin, Bach, and Beethoven in such a way? With his play, he shook some basic understandings that were considered to be unchanging. Sometimes it even looked like that they were shaken already by his skinny figure when it appeared to the best concert halls in the capital. Part of the audience fall in stupor and couldn’t hardly find words – and even didn’t try to. Other again expressed themselves with shorter or longer exclamations. It’s hard to speak about music and it’s much harder to praise than to belittle but it’s obvious that audience got many messages which were rather unusual.

What was this message about? It could already be decided by the order of the works where the first scherzo comes a bit later, after the second. The first scherzo is much darker than the second; you get a feeling like the world is splitting in half and the rift goes through a poet’s heart. This is the outer side. But there is also the inner side. Musicians are different, they see things differently but I dare to say, that Debargue is seeking first of all beauty in the music. It’s not just a beautiful sound, but beauty in itself, something unattainable, higher than everyday life, a secret force that affects and attracts you but you never get united with it. Gumilyov has said – “What can we do with these immortal poems?” We can do nothing, we have no sixth sense.

But there are musicians who strive towards beauty, are its faithful servants and governors. One characteristic feature of them is to focus on the sound, to treat the sound like the greatest treasure. They don’t lose the slightest part of it, they note every change in harmony, their cadenzas strive for a unity through different colored sound lines. The moments of ecstasy are exponentiated and one cannot resist. Let’s recall Barcarolle of Faure that Debargue used for some time as an encore, a tiny, surprising chef-d’oeuvre where sound-scapes reach their maximum.

But it is only part of it, an attribute but not the substance. The substance was given with Chopin in the first half. It’s a collision of the power of beauty with something that is its opposite. The first piece was a smooth, light and youthful polonaise, at first, you did not feel something threatening in the air yet. This dance, polonaise was like a flight with open wings towards the world. And then, already an anticipation of something luscious, awkward, uneasy. A look at something that slips away, attempt to stop the time. The Barcarolle about which Debargue said in one of the interviews that it consists all the music, music of all eras and only by the date of its’ writing it can be considered as a piece of romanticism. The piece grows and gets more layers, more fields in it. The light swaying in the beginning turns into an ocean. It’s not only a work with a powerful culmination, it is also an attempt to embrace all that exists. The first collision takes place in the Scherzo in B flat Minor with its’ constantly repeated motif that creates a sense like someone is constantly watching you in the crowd. The initial mysterious call which was like a shimmering becomes now clearly visible. All the scherzo is dedicated to it and Debargue gives it so intensely that only someone stone-hearted would not hear it. He uses all his skills – like his wonderful ability to show very clearly the structure of the work and polyphony and his extra fine feel for sound nuances.

Nocturne is a critical turn. It’s a mournful monologue with very vivid basses - they are like an alter ego of a person. The mysterious call is given now in C Major, as an anthem. It is obvious that there is no life outside of beauty. Mad tension, feverish octaves are like an attempt to conquer the heaven forcibly. Then it turns again to the triplets and to the motif of the mournful monologue that we heard in the beginning. Scherzo B Minor is the last act of the drama and follows attacca the Nocturne. With a “click” opens “Pandora’s box” completely. It predicts something scary and it happens. A storm, a whirlwind, world falls like a puzzle into the pieces. Fast passages are played at such a speed that they should melt - but they do not. They fall from pianist’s fingers like dust. Mysterious call is now only a mirage. Invisible hand shifts all the decorations and we are at the other side of the mirror, the time will stop. Like a distant call, we hear only a D-sharp note from the middle part of this work in B Major. It recalls the middle part of the Mephisto Waltz, once played by Debargue, where it was like a look through the eyelashes with seductive and threatening premonition. Inside the beautiful shell lies a big fraud…
Then the ovations and break. Audience has already a big list of pretensions and questions - how is it possible to play in such a way. Strangely enough, everyone favorites a different piece.

From a sting of the note C opens the second half. Two years ago Bach Toccata in C Minor shocked me with its luxurious rhythmical celebration and the presence of the whole. Then it was connected to the following Mozart’s Fantasy in C Minor. This time it worked like a foreplay to the Beethoven’s 32nd sonata. Dark chords in the beginning, agonizing self-reflection, some kind of underground boom and here it is - Bach’s theme of the cross like saying: “leave every hope…” The whole first part is the battle and war but mental centrum is the second part, the Arietta.
It’s like Gioconda’s smile, this Arietta. Questions around this enigma have been going on already two centuries since the very first Beethoven researchers - it’s so bizarre and different. There have been around ten mentions of it in the literature. Commentators agree in one point – it is the end of everything. Already the theme itself is enigmatic. It’s hard to follow and – depends on the interpretation - it is not so easy to catch the contours of the melody. It tends to split up. The variations that follow are bizarre as well. Often there is hard to decide what in it is principal and what is secondary material. Some parts of the work remind even contemporary minimalism. Already a week everyone seems to be discussing this work and its’ 3rd, jazzy variation. Has composer indeed written it that way, or is it only Debargue’s interpretation? So we were waiting for the interpretation of Debargue with a great anticipation and he didn’t disappoint. Arietta in his interpretation was accepted the most. He played it with a very warm and heartfelt sound and formed of it a nice whole (not an easy task if to think what kind of inhuman confrontation is there written between right and left hand). It shone like the sun above the world and with an astonishing crescendo he led us through the abyss of silent despair, through the stroke of the universe in the same “jazzy” variation to the heavenly heights. It was expected but how it was made! It was the apotheosis of his aggravation to the sound and so it was not even anymore the sound but become a talk, a picture and a gesture.
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5 и 6 марта Люка Дебарг играл в Москве программу Шопен–Бах–Бетхо

musicseasons.org

1 month ago