Pianist Lucas Debargue Brings Solo Recital Debut to Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage

Pianist Lucas Debargue, whose breakthrough performance at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in 2015 put him on the map, will make his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage on Saturday, November 5, 2022 at 8pm, presented by Cherry Orchard Festival and Show One Productions. His program features music that he considers his artistic milestones, including Scarlatti's Sonatas in A Major, K. 208 and K. 24, D Major, K. 491, and D Minor, K. 141; Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit; Chopin's Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45, and Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major; and Liszt's "Après une lecture du Dante" from Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année: Italie, No. 7.

Debargue last performed at Carnegie Hall in January 2020 with the American Symphony Orchestra, on the heels of the release of his recording of Scarlatti's 52 Sonatas on Sony Classical. That album was praised by The New York Times and chosen by NPR as one of "the 10 classical albums to usher in the next decade." NPR reported, "Purists who insist on hearing their Scarlatti sonatas played on the harpsichord might have a change of heart listening to this four-disc set performed on a modern grand piano by Lucas Debargue, an unconventional 29-year-old Frenchman who once played bass in a rock band." Listen to Debargue's remarkable 2020 interview on WQXR here.

Born in 1990, Lucas Debargue has forged a highly unusual path to success. Having discovered classical music at the age of ten, the future musician began to feed his passion and curiosity with diverse artistic and intellectual experiences, which included advanced studies of literature and philosophy. The encounter with the celebrated piano teacher Rena Shereshevskaya proved a turning point: her vision and guidance inspired Debargue to make a life-long professional commitment to music.

A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, Lucas Debargue draws inspiration for his playing from literature, painting, cinema, and jazz, and develops very personal interpretation of a carefully selected repertoire. Though the core piano repertoire is central to his career, he is keen to present works by lesser-known composers like Karol Szymanowski, Nikolai Medtner, or Miłosz Magin.

For his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall, Debargue has chosen music that has been meaningful to him over the years. The Chopin pieces have been with him since he was a teenager, the Scarlatti sonatas for harpsichord were a welcome challenge to adapt for the modern piano and were featured on his celebrated 2019 recording, and the Ravel is a staple in his repertoire that he describes as a discovery every time he plays it. His affinity for Liszt's "Dante" sonata comes from its marriage of music and literature. Debargue says, "My connection to music is very much influenced by my connection to literature. I am very much counting on the narrative dimension of music. That's why I like to play long, epic pieces, because I like to tell a story. I like to tell the story that the composer wanted to tell, but I also like to recognize myself in some of the characters the composer created, to feel myself taken in the story."

"The incredible gift, artistic vision and creative freedom" of Lucas Debargue was revealed by his performances at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow in 2015 and distinguished with the coveted Prize of the Moscow Music Critics' Association. His experience at the Tchaikovsky Competition is the subject of the documentary To Music. Directed by Martin Mirabel and produced by Bel Air Media, it was shown at the International Film Festival in Biarritz in 2018.

Today, Debargue is invited to play solo and with leading orchestras in the most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, The Kennedy Center, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Boston's Jordan Hall and Sanders Theatre, Maison de la Musique in Montreal, the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, Theatre des Champs Elysées and Philharmonie de Paris, London's Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall, Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the concert halls of Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, and of course the legendary Grand Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg.

Sony Classical has released seven of Debargue's albums with music of Scarlatti, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Medtner and Szymanowsky, as well as Polish composer Miłosz Magin, a discovery of a fascinating musical personality, recorded with Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer. His next releases will feature Mozart concerti as well as the complete piano works of Fauré. He regularly collaborates with Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Jurowski, Andrey Boreyko, Tugan Sokhiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Bertrand de Billy, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. His chamber music partners include Gidon Kremer, Janine Jansen, and Martin Fröst.

Debargue also devotes a large portion of his time to composition and has already created over twenty works for piano solo and chamber ensembles. These include Orpheo di camera concertino for piano, drums and string orchestra, premiered by Kremerata Baltica, and a piano trio that was composed under the auspices of the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. As a permanent artistic partner of Kremerata Baltica, Debargue has been commissioned to write a chamber opera on the subject of assisted suicide.