LUCAS DEBARGUE Piano Recital
Victoria Concert Hall
Friday (16 December 2022)
Completing a year of exciting pianism that saw the likes of Eric Lu, Kit Armstrong, Arnaldo Cohen, Yunchan Lim and Martha Argerich all appear on Singapore stages, Altenburg Arts pulled out many stops by presenting French pianist Lucas Debargue in recital. Debargue came to fame by not winning the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. His 4th prize was all the more astonishing given the fact that he only took piano-playing seriously at the age of 20, just four short years before his Moscow adventure.
That he has become more famous than the four pianists placed ahead of him (whoever remembers the winner Dmitri Masleev?) puts him in the Pogorelich stratum of artists. He is, without doubt, one of the most interesting pianists to appear here. Nothing in his performances is strictly conventional, yet there is method and thought behind his playing that is strangely compelling.
Photo: Ung Ruey Loon
His view of Mozart’s Sonata in A minor (K.310, the one Dinu Lipatti recorded) is more romantic than classical. Generous pedalling coloured the sturm und drang of the opening movement, and there was simplicity of voice in the slow movement. Much less pedal was applied to the Presto finale, and that made the movement fly faster and signal far more urgency than it actually meant.
Photo: Ung Ruey Loon
His Chopin group was just as interesting; the contrasts made in Ballade No.2 in F major (Op.38) were stark, with more emphasis placed in the tempestuous sections, and the final coda was delivered with an extreme agitation that was startling. The Prelude in C sharp minor (Op.45) sounded modern, something from beyond Chopin’s time while the Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major (Op.61) was more fantasy than polonaise. The listener was reminded of the rhythm of Polish nobility intermittently, but made to care more for its fantastic elements.
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| Photo: Ung Ruey Loon |
Even if one had reservations about the recital’s first half, the second half would sweep those away. His view of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit was rather special. Ondine had shimmering fluid textures, as expected, but it was her tumultuous shriek at the piece’s close, represented by rampaging arpeggios across the keyboard that jolted the senses, gave true meaning to “Ondine’s curse”. Le gibet (The Gallows) was characterised by a tolling B flat octave, varying intensity, light and shade whenever the hanging corpse was shifted or got caught in a breeze.
Chilling as that might have been, Scarbo topped it all with a shuddering vehemence that needs to be heard to be believed. His bow-legged goblin even skipped from bough to bough differently from all others, including unexpectedly placed agogic pauses which made its malevolence all the more palpable. The final climax and shrill scream to end made this weird and wonderful Gaspard one to remember.
Photo: Ung Ruey Loon
Comparisons of Debargue’s view of Liszt’s Dante Sonata with Yunchan Lim’s several weeks back would invariably be made. Suffice to say, both were memorable in different ways. While Lim’s was the perfect textbook version that garnered a straight A, Debargue’s looks at the descent into the Inferno from altered viewpoints, presented an even more menacing one, with evil surprises lurking at every corner. A crooked A, but an A nonetheless.
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| Photo: Ung Ruey Loon |
Special mention must be made of Debargue’s pair of Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas as encores. Seldom has the D minor (K.32, Aria) sounded this trenchant with well-selected accents and ornaments, while the E flat major (K.253) became positively orchestral with clever play of counterpoint and shifting textures, all conducted at quickfire speed. Debargue’s return recital in Singapore could not come any sooner.
