Zal - The Music of Milosz Magin Lucas Debargue

• Milosz Magin (1929 - 1999):
• 1 Magin: Andante pour violon et piano 06:46
• Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion:
• 2 Magin: Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion: I. Allegro con fuoco - Allegro appassionato 03:54
• 3 Magin: Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion: II. Allegro 08:40
• 4 Magin: Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion: III. Presto 04:54
• 5 Magin: Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion: IV. Adagio 05:45
• 6 Magin: Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes, timbales et percussion: V. Allegro con fuoco 02:12
• Milosz Magin:
• 7 Magin: Vocalise No. 2 - Andantino 02:28
• 8 Magin: Vocalise No. 3 - Vivace 02:54
• 9 Magin: Nostalgie du pays, extrait des Miniatures polonaises 01:57
• Concerto rustico No. 1 pour violon, cordes et timbales:
• 10 Magin: Concerto rustico No. 1 pour violon, cordes et timbales: I. Allegro 07:09
• 11 Magin: Concerto rustico No. 1 pour violon, cordes et timbales: II. Andantino 07:09
• 12 Magin: Concerto rustico No. 1 pour violon, cordes et timbales: III. Presto 04:56
• Milosz Magin:
• 13 Magin: Vocalise No. 1 - Andante 02:49
• 14 Magin: Vocalise No. 4 - Andantino 03:00
• 15 Magin: Stabat Mater pour cordes et timbales 11:43
• Total Runtime 01:16:16

Info for Zal - The Music of Milosz Magin

After acclaimed recordings of music by the great masters, Lucas Debargue shines much-needed light on a composer he is determined must be heard: Miłosz Magin (1929-1999). "Magin’s style is capable of both enchanting and surprising us," the French pianist says. "Few composers of his time were so open to cultivating the art of writing beautiful melodies." Born in Poland in 1929, Magin settled in Paris in 1960. After a car accident in 1963 he traded a career as one of Poland’s greatest pianists for that of an imaginative composer who would never forget the traditions of his homeland.

The Polish word Żal forms the album’s title. It refers to an emotion –particularly a complex and multifaceted one and is neigh-untranslatable.This single word, a single emotion with worlds of meaning, conveys for Debargue, the scent, complexity, depth, and emotion of Magin’s music. Magin’s greatest inspiration was Chopin, another Pole who made Paris his home and whose piano works Magin recorded for Decca. The two composers are buried next to one another in Paris. Magin’s music shares much of the same lucid, distilled quality as that of his forbear, as well as a pianistic elegance that speaks of France and Poland in equal measure. "His music has been resonating in my mind’s ear for the last twenty years," says Debargue, whose first piano teacher was a student of Magin and "admired him not only as an inspired composer but also as a pianist and as a teacher whose advice on interpretative matters had often proved invaluable to her. His music has played a crucial role in my life. I grew up with it," continues the French pianist.

The pieces written for children, especially Magin’s Miniature Polonaises of which he presents Nostalgie du pays, was one of the first works he learnt with his first piano teacher. When Debargue included Magin’s Nostalgie du pays at a recital in Paris, the composer’s granddaughter Alexandra contacted him. A correspondence began and a world of unpublished music saw the light of day.

Debargue’s new album, with Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer, presents the composer’s rhapsodic piano concerto, combining puckish agility with magical luminosity. Kremer himself plays the Violin Concerto that frolics with Polish dances, while pianist and violinist are united for exquisite chamber works and Debargue presents gems for solo piano. This album includes world premiere recordings of the Violin Concerto, Vocalises, and Andante for Violin and Piano. It also presents the composer’s intense, prayerful Stabat mater for strings and timpani. "I already knew the sound of the Kremerata Baltica and was convinced that it would be ideal for Magin’s Stabat mater and his concertos," says Debargue.

Lucas Debargue, piano
Gidon Kremer, violin
Kremerata Baltica

Lucas Debargue
In 2015 the French pianist Lucas Debargue became the most talked-about artist of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Despite being placed 4th, his muscular and intellectual playing, combined with an intensely poetic and lyrical gift for phrasing, earned him the coveted Moscow Music Critics’ Award as ”the pianist whose incredible gift, artistic vision and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience”. He was the only musician across all disciplines to do so. Soon after the competition Debargue was signed by Sony Classical, and recorded a live recital for his debut release with music by Ravel, Liszt, Chopin and Scarlatti in his native city of Paris.

Debargue was born in 1990 in a non-musical family. In 1999 he settled in Compiègne, about 90km north of Paris and began his initial piano studies at the local music school at the age of 11.

At 15 Debargue ceased piano studies having found no musical mentor to help him share his passion with others and having become frustrated at playing solely for himself. He began to work, successfully for his Baccalaureate at a local college and joined a rock band. At 17 he relocated to the capital to study for a degree in Arts and Literature at Paris Diderot University and, remarkably, ceased playing the piano altogether for three years.

In 2010 he was asked to play at the Fête de la Musique festival in Compiègne, and this marked his return to the keyboard. Shortly after he was put in touch with his current mentor and guide, the celebrated Russian professor Rena Shereshevskaya, who is based at both the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory and the École Normale de Musique de Paris ‘Alfred Cortot’. Seeing in Debargue a future as a great interpreter, Professor Shereshevskaya admitted him into her class at the Cortot School to prepare him for grand international competitions. It was at the age of 20 when Debargue started formal piano training.

Only four years later he entered the Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, and the world instantly took note of a startling and original new talent. “There hasn’t been a foreign pianist who has caused such a stir since Glenn Gould’s arrival in Moscow, or Van Cliburn’s victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition,” said The Huffington Post.

A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, Debargue draws inspiration for his playing from many disciplines, including literature, painting, cinema and jazz. The core piano repertoire is central to his career, but he is also keen to present works by lesser-known composers such as Nikolai Medtner, Samuel Maykapar and Nikolai Roslavets.

Booklet for Zal - The Music of Milosz Magin