Bach, Beethoven, Medtner

Album review

The French pianist Lucas Debargue was a Tchaikovsky Competition sensation in 2015 (although he did not win), and this studio debut gives you a good idea of what the fuss was about. Debargue offers the French tradition in all its calmly urbane glory. You might like various aspects of this release: the unapologetically pianistic but flawlessly elegant Bach Toccata, the Medtner Sonata in F minor, Op. 5. You might sample one of the movements of the latter, inasmuch as the preponderance of recordings of Medtner's solo piano music tends to favor the thunder and lightning of Marc-André Hamelin, for example. Debargue does not reach such dramatic heights, but there's room for more restrained readings of Medtner. The highlight is the utterly distinctive reading of the Beethoven Piano Sonata in D major, Op. 10, No. 3. This work, with its four-movement plan and expansive themes, is generally taken as an example of how Beethoven was stretching his wings toward his epic style, but Debargue effectively takes it on its own terms, with a playful opening movement and an almost static slow movement that may not be to everyone's taste, but certainly makes something new of this much-played sonata. There's a good deal of intelligence and care shown in the small details throughout, and the recording marks Debargue as a young French artist to watch carefully.

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