NEWS

Lucas Debargue

6 days ago

❗️🎬Don't miss the live transmission tomorrow, 9th of November from Philharmonie de Paris, where Lucas will play Liszt Piano Concerto no 1 with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Maestro Tugan Sokhiev.
Starting time : 20:30 CET. There are 2 live streams:
MEDICI TV
www.medici.tv/en/concerts/tugan-sokhiev-conducts-liszt-and-shostakovich-lucas-debargue/
PHILHARMONIE DE PARIS stream
live.philharmoniedeparis.fr/concert/1106640/orchestre-national-du-capitole-de-toulouse-tugan-sokh... ... See MoreSee Less

Tugan Sokhiev conducts Liszt and Shostakovich – With Lucas Debargue

Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse

Lucas Debargue

2 weeks ago

🎤🎧Lucas talked in French Radio Classique about the recording process of his album “Scarlatti. 52 Sonatas”, about his collaboration with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and maestro Tugan Sokhiev and Liszt Piano Concerto no 1.

Snippets in English
--You play Scarlatti in concerts and you released a box set with 52 Scarlatti sonatas. Is your approach to Scarlatti different when it comes to recording?
This is my first recording project to which I approached consciously. Performing in a concert, live recording or studio recording is not the same thing. Here I did not go to the studio with the pieces I had already played on the concerts. I locked myself to the studio to experience the process, it was a unique experience and I worked very precisely for the specific result.
I want to say that it structured me! It was an intensive working session, kind of residence with Scarlatti and all the time I spent there, I deepened into this music, worked, polished, sharpened interpretation of this music. In fact, my level of playing increased significantly with it. I see it day by day. Since this recording, I have no longer the same relationship with the instrument. So, I think my approach was good, it was healthy, and we did a good recording. I’m happy with it. It met my clarity requirements, which I demanded of myself. I think my interpretation here is not too individualistic. I didn’t put there that much of myself, it’s just the score with minimal remarks what Scarlatti left for the interpretation.
There are no nuances, no indications of articulation. It should be defined. We must try to find - retry to find the rules of interpretation. To me, it was important to play it as clearly as possible that listeners can discover some not so well-known sonatas. If you are a classical music lover, then you know a little bit about Scarlatti, but in the concerts, there are played mostly always the same sonatas. To me, it was important to discover other, less known sonatas and shed light on them. So, everyone can find their own idea. If I have time, I would re-record them in another way, because it is not going to end yet, that’s for sure.

--We enjoy your recent release, Scarlatti album and look forward to seeing you in a few days in a concert. You will play on 7th of December at the Toulouse Halle aux Grains and on the 9th of December at the Philharmonie de Paris, with an orchestra and a conductor you know well, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Tugan Sokhiev.
Orchestre de Capitole de Toulouse is a remarkable orchestra. I played with them twice Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major and I have very, very good memories. I remember a very precise orchestra and now I am delighted to do something completely different with them: Liszt 1st Piano Concerto. There is energy, passion, responsiveness. We will see how it goes; it is the first time I play this concerto in a concert. I have played Liszt 2nd Piano Concerto. I have practised both a lot. It excites me very much to play the Liszt 1st because it's a concerto what I listened very much when I was a teenager, it made me dream completely. I would never have believed that one day I will play it with the Capitole Orchestra, reach the level what allows me to play it.

--Does Tugan Sokhiev have something in common with Valery Gergiev?
They both are from Vladikavkaz in and studied with Musin. Musin was legendary conducting teacher in St. Petersburg, they were both his students but they are very different. It’s like me with Alexandre Kantorow and Rémi Geniet. We are all Rena’s pupils, but we are very, very different. And Sokhiev and Gergiev - of course, you can find similarities, but they are very different. I love to play with both.

--How do you describe your collaboration with the conductors? What kind of communication it is?
I must be very effective; everything must go fast. Before the rehearsal, there is a brief meeting with the conductor. I try to be very analytical and foresee problematic places in the score. Every conductor creates different atmosphere. I try to be very thorough in the rehearsal, even though the concert always comes out differently than in the rehearsal. We cannot reproduce concert in a rehearsal. I even don’t take it as a preparation for the concert. In rehearsal, we start to communicate with each other.

--Have you ever wanted to conduct yourself, a Mozart concerto for instance?
I already did it and I’m going to do it again. My priority here is not that there is no conductor and pianist does all: plays and conducts. If I play with an orchestra without conductor, it’s because the orchestra is perfectly capable to play alone. I appreciate it very much. It is like chamber music, direct communication with the musicians. It is a very nice experience but for instance, in a Mozart concerto is also very nice to do it with a conductor because of this feeling of unity - I get a global vision what is not mine. I express myself inside this vision which is not mine. If there is no conductor, I can do more things from the point of view of interpretation, but that does not necessarily mean that the result will be more convincing. I have more freedom - and more responsibility but that doesn’t mean that I am already a conductor.

--I guess I already asked it but still – what do you prefer: to play chamber music, play with conductor, without conductor?
I am just thankful to have musician’s job and play the instrument what allows me to do all that.
podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/le-journal-du-classique-lucas-debargue/id1195868531?i=1000458226166 ... See MoreSee Less

‎Le journal du classique : Le journal du classique - Lucas Debargue sur Apple Podcasts

Lucas Debargue

2 weeks ago

❗️🎧❗️About Lucas' album "Scarlatti. 52 Sonatas" in Canadian music journal The Whole Note.

🎧 "When the jury at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition placed French pianist Lucas Debargue fourth (which was actually sixth, since the second and third prizes were each shared by two contestants), the outrage was predictable. For it was Debargue who had won over the audience – and the critics – with his dazzling mix of brilliant technique and poetic sensibility.

In any case, Debargue’s career has flourished. In January he’ll make his third appearance at Koerner Hall in Toronto. And Sony has just released his fifth recording, a four-disc set of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, the innovative Italian Baroque composer who was born in 1685 – the very same year as Bach and Handel – and spent his later, most productive, years at the royal courts in Portugal and Spain.

These short works are fundamental to the repertoire of harpsichordists. Though heard less often in piano recitals, they have been championed by pianists from Vladimir Horowitz and Alicia de Laroccha to András Schiff, Glenn Gould and Angela Hewitt. Many last just three or four minutes, even with Scarlatti’s repeats. But they have the impact of much grander works. Debargue’s selection of 52 sonatas represents less than a tenth of the 555 that Scarlatti wrote. But that’s four hours of some of the most glorious keyboard music ever written.

Scarlatti, a virtuoso harpsichordist, wrote these sonatas to play on his own instrument. So Debargue, ever mindful of the perils of playing them on a piano, makes minimal use of one of the piano’s most valued assets, the sustaining pedal. As a result, he is able to weave textures of delectable lightness and harpsichord-like clarity. But right from the first – and longest – work here, K206, Debargue makes full use of other resources offered by the piano to create an orchestra-scale range of colours and a variety of textures not possible on the earlier instrument. In K115 he highlights Scarlatti’s alluring harmonic shifts by shaping the broken chords and chromatic scales with dramatic crescendos and diminuendos. He does rush the tempo at times, though there are definite payoffs. K25, which is marked allegro, becomes more dramatic at his presto tempo, with the exquisite melodic lines emerging magically. I especially enjoy his bold use of rubato throughout. His ornaments are gorgeous, especially in episodic works like K268, though they can disrupt the pulse and prevent the Iberian rhythms from dancing.

The way Debargue combines the clarity of the harpsichord with the expressive power of the piano is fresh, imaginative and invariably enjoyable – a thoroughly modern approach to these exquisite works."

Pamela Margles
www.thewholenote.com/index.php/booksrecords2/booksrecords2-2
Primavera Consulting ... See MoreSee Less

All Recording Reviews | The WholeNote

Having retired from my day job at New Music Concerts and recently undergone knee replacement surgery which involves an extended recovery, I have found myself lately with a luxury of leisure time.

Lucas Debargue

3 weeks ago

About Lucas’ album “Scarlatti. 52 Sonatas” in the broadcast “Treffpunkt Klassik” in German SWR2 radio channel.
The presenter Jan Brachmann mentions that Lucas has released four significant records so far, among them the current album with very nice design of Portuguese azulejos.
He says: “Listening to these four CDs, you quickly feel the ecstasy of curiosity and amazement because you wouldn't think such chord progressions, dissonances and harmonic labyrinths would be possible in music around 1740.”
He also gives an interesting musical comparison of the of Vladimir Horowitz’ and Lucas’ interpretation of the Sonata F-sharp Minor K 25 and says about Lucas’ interpretation: “Debargue takes here faster tempo and plays this sonata full of impetuosity as an early work of the "Sturm und Drang" era. He uses the pedal more sparingly than Horowitz. He articulates more carefully the “sighing quavers” of the left hand over the right. He shows great flexibility in the ornaments. He succeeds as an imaginative and knowledgeable artist to synthesize here the pianistic and historic cembalo playing style."
www.swr.de/swr2/musik-klassik/SWR2-Treffpunkt-Klassik-Neue-CDs,swr2-treffpunkt-klassik-neue-cds-2... ... See MoreSee Less

SWR2 Treffpunkt Klassik - Neue CDs

Am Mikrofon: Jan Brachmann

Lucas Debargue

3 weeks ago

🎬NAXOS produced a DVD of the movie "Lucas Debargue: To Music". It's directed by Martin Mirabel and follows Lucas first year after the Tchaikovsky Competition. Now it is available in Amazon.
👉AMAZON quote: "This film offers unique insights into Debargue s life as a musician at the beginning of a remarkable career, with rehearsals and concerts from Moscow to Chicago via Weimar and Salerno, revealing talents as a composer and jazz improviser and his first-time entry into a world of recording studios, touring and fame, in a crucial year of discoveries."
www.amazon.com/Lucas-Debargue-Music-Martin-Mirabel/dp/B07YTCDZHP/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=DVD+Lucas+de... ... See MoreSee Less

Lucas Debargue: To Music

A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, young French pianist Lucas Debargue became the most talked-about artist of the fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. Placed...