Debargue begins with Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, one of only two minor-key Mozart sonatas, a moody and implacable reflection of Mozart's grief at his mother's death in 1778. He continues with three Chopin works: the Ballade No. 2, whose lilting F-major lullaby gives way to terrifying A-minor tempests; the plaintive Op. 45 Prelude in C-sharp minor; and the soaring, majestic Polonaise-Fantaisie. After the intermission, Debargue rises to the Herculean heights of Alkan's Etude Op. 39, No. 8—the first movement of the Concerto for Solo Piano—rarely performed (owing to its difficulty) and formally audacious: 1,248 measures (more than the entirety of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata) of endurance-testing, soul-stirring music. He closes out the evening with another Chopin triptych, including the sublime Berceuse, the "Heroic" Polonaise, and the magnificent Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, a truly grand finale in the hands of one of today's most gifted and daring pianists.

Photo © Xiomara Bender

Lucas Debargue sppears courtesy of Sony Classical.

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