Lucas Debargue Archive

SCHUBERT: Piano Sonatas D. 784, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony 

by Audiophile Audition | Mar 9, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

The combination of Schubert and Szymanowski makes strange, emotionally charged bedfellows. SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata No. 14 in a minor, D. 784; Piano Sonata No. 13 in A Major, D. 664; SZYMANOWSKI: Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 21 – Lucas Debargue, piano – Sony 88985465632, 68:00 911/17/17) ****: In these recordings (10-15 July 2017), pianist Lucas Debargue proves himself no ordinary Schubert disciple, opting for a deliberate, thoughtful approach that often eschews musical violence for soft gradations of nuance.  He opens his Schubert portion of this disc with the 1823 a minor Sonata, D. 784, an often grimly turbulent work, likely related to a poem, “A Prayer,” that Schubert himself composed when alerted to the various bodily maladies that would eventually consume him. The dramatically fixated Allegro giusto moves in vehement, punishing units of sound, spare in texture, tragic in tone. Tremolandos and massive chordal progressions alternate without affording us emotional consolation, even in the key of E Major. Perhaps some relief extends outward in the brief F Major Andante, whose pianissimo unfolding subdues the mortal storm. The concluding Allegro vivace proceeds in the manner of a stormy Chopin etude, suddenly breaking off into a syncopated second subject. […]