{"id":65785,"date":"2020-01-07T15:06:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=65785"},"modified":"2020-01-08T08:19:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T13:19:11","slug":"interview-pianist-lucas-debargue-musical-life-meteoric-rise-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2020\/01\/07\/interview-pianist-lucas-debargue-musical-life-meteoric-rise-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Pianist Lucas Debargue On His Musical Life \u2013 And His Meteoric Rise To Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

French pianist Lucas Debargue talks to us about his musical evolution and approach, with Show One impresario Svetlana Dvoretsky’s perspective on his gifts as an artist.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Lucas Debargue (Photo : Xiomara Bender)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI never thought of music as a job,\u201d says pianist Lucas Debargue.<\/p>\n

Job? No. Glittering career? Most certainly, for the 29-year-old French pianist who is something of a media sensation. He’s kicking off 2020 with concert dates in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City, bouncing across the Atlantic from Boston to France and Italy, and then it’s off to Estonia and beyond.<\/p>\n

But, just five years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find anyone in the classical music world who had so much as heard his name. It was at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition in the summer of 2015 that he would come to instant fame.<\/p>\n

Founder, President & Producer of Toronto\u2019s Show One Productions, Svetlana Dvoretsky is an impresario in the grand, traditional sense. She founded Show One largely as a vehicle to bring artists from her native Russia to North America to tour. As the years have passed, the company has expanded to incorporate essentially the cream of the global classical music crop as a whole, but her attention has naturally remained focused on the highlights of Russian culture \u2014 including the famous International Tchaikovsky Competition.<\/p>\n

Held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the competition is one of the world’s most prestigious for young pianists, violinists, cellists, and vocalists. That’s where Svetlana’s impresario’s eye \u2014 and the world’s attention \u2014 was first caught by Lucas Debargue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all happened four and a half years ago,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was the first year MediciTV broadcast the whole competition,\u201d she says. \u201cWhoever couldn\u2019t make it to the competition were glued to their computer screens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lucas
Lucas Debargue (Photo : Felix Broede\/Sony Music Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not that dazzling technique or talent is in short supply at the competition. \u201cUsually, they are particularly strong,\u201d she notes of the field of competitors. Still, there was something about the young Frenchman\u2019s playing that caught the attention of judges and audiences alike. \u201cPeople see this French guy that nobody had ever heard of at all,\u201d Svetlana recalls. She had friends who were there in Moscow, and they reported back that Debargue\u2019s reception recalled that of a young Glenn Gould \u2014 another unknown foreigner who stunned Russian audiences with his unique playing style. \u201cSomething similar happened here. Thousands became instant fans.\u201d Even jury members clapped. \u201cHe literally woke up famous.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his interpretive gifts, as opposed to supersonic technique, that impressed everyone present. \u201cHis interpretation is like no other,\u201d Svetlana says. \u201cThat\u2019s all they were talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

If his interpretative skills are seminal, perhaps it\u2019s because Lucas comes at it from a unique angle. \u201cI consider myself like a scientist,\u201d Debargue says. \u201cIt\u2019s not about being the fastest or the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did Debargue manage to fly so far under the classical music world\u2019s radar? It\u2019s not that he didn\u2019t start early. \u201cI was actually starting music on my own when I was around 10,\u201d he recalls. It was an initiative that came from him, and not his family. \u201cI was not surrounded by musicians,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In spite of their own non-musical backgrounds, his parents were supportive of Lucas\u2019 studies. However, once he got to age 15, and a chance at a scholarship to study music in Paris opened up, he went in a different direction. \u201cI was 15-years-old, and I was scared to be in Paris on my own,\u201d explains the native of Villers-sur-Coudun in the north of France. His parents gave him the choice, and he chose to stay home and play music, but attend a regular school.<\/p>\n

Five years later, he would come back to music full-time. \u201cI had a terribly painful break-up and my studies weren\u2019t going well,\u201d he explains. \u201cMusic \u2014 it offered itself to me as a solution. Life was answering to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most young soloists have a history of coming up through a nationally recognized music system, with grading and competitions along the way to prepare them for what lies ahead, and make them part of a community of classical musicians. That\u2019s the part of it that Lucas missed, and what made him all but invisible to the classical music world.<\/p>\n

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Lucas Debargue (Photo : Felix Broede\/Sony Music Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI really started practising with a professional teacher when I was 20.\u201d Noted Russian teacher Rena Shereshevskaya took him under her wing, and invited him to study with her at the \u00c9cole Normale de Musique de Paris \u201cAlfred Cortot\u201d. It was a connection to Russian culture as well \u2014 and to Svetlana, as it happens. \u201cI know his teacher,\u201d Svetlana says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was discovering the Russian music, and the Russian pianists,\u201d Lucas says. He came to revere Russian culture, and Shereshevskaya had connections to the Tchaikovsky Competition. But, winning, and even the competition itself, held little interest for him. \u201cIt was more important to play in that hall, to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits Shereshevskaya for setting him on the right musical path. \u201cShe was really unveiling a truth,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There are two common modes of playing, he says, one that is submissive and obeys the laws and rules, and another that uses the performer\u2019s own essence, and their own emotions to interpret the work. Debargue explains that his method is neither.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterpreting, it\u2019s like translating a book,\u201d he says. There\u2019s one clear goal. \u201cTo make the music as clear as possible,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019m just looking for clarity. Just to play the notes is not enough. To put yourself into the notes is not enough either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debargue subsumes himself in the music. \u201cEgo is the contrary of art,\u201d he says. Still, the classical music world is known for many over-sized egos, and he does not pass judgment. \u201cThere is an audience for that too,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s better to know what family you belong to.\u201d<\/p>\n