From passion to surprise, from classical to pop, from decompartmentalization to the big screen
During the first season of the Grand Récital, on April 25, Martha Argerich and Dong Hyek Lim played with passion and serenity, absolute complicity, with Martha Argerich's eternally crystalline playing. At the Cinémathèque, pianist Lucas Debargue improvised on «Le Fantôme de l'Opéra».
We'd almost like to call her Martha, so much so that her human dimension and the atmosphere of the Grand Récital inspire us with a feeling of accessibility, even universality. This dimension represents the great challenge for Jean-Christophe de Vries, founder and artistic director, who wants to open the doors of classical music to all audiences by breaking down the «star-system» approach and breaking down barriers.
Atypical encounters with the musicians and affordable cocktail receptions are offered after the concerts. In his introduction, Jean-Christophe de Vries points out that the audience is made up of 61 % listeners under forty, and also 62 guests of all nationalities, including refugees, with no access to classical music culture or even closed cultural venues. Participants who celebrate their birthday today receive tickets for the September 16 concert with Gabriela Montero.
In her duet with Dong Hyek Lim, Martha offers us an absolute and unequalled accuracy of space-time, in almost visceral modulations. Critics of this exceptional duo have noted their habit of «parleying» openly on stage. We often see them discussing the choice of pianos, deciding at the last minute to swap instruments between two pieces, or even changing the order of the program in front of the audience. The international music press often pokes fun at their fusion dynamics, sometimes referring to their duets as «two-piano roommates» because of their mutual responsiveness and almost telepathic dialogue. We were treated to a sample in the form of small gestures, small conversations on stage, and even an exchange, an almost friendly negotiation of pianos before the Symphonic dances by Rachmaninov. This allowed us to find ourselves facing Dong Hyek Lim instead of Martha Argerich for the last part of the concert. The duo also performed Schubert's famous Fantaisie for piano four hands. The interpretation of this work, sometimes overused because its melody is so striking and well-known, was heard renewed, illuminated by an unequalled transparency, conveyed by two honest minds, playing in tune, as if composed at the very moment. In the spontaneity of their playing, Schubert, Mozart and Rachmaninov were certainly the ghosts of the Salle Métropole!
Collaboration with the Cinémathèque
On March 25, Le Grand Récital collaborated with the Cinémathèque suisse to screen the film Phantom of the Opera, a mythical silent film from 1925, at Lausanne's Capitole cinema, with improvised piano accompaniment by Lucas Debargue.
The sound illustration of the characters was elaborated through interaction with the audience to define the musical themes, with a colorful and contemporary proposal.
Lucas Debargue has a rather atypical background: having taken up the piano after a few years of lessons between the ages of 11 and 15, he abandoned the instrument to play bass in a rock band, then continued his piano studies from the age of 20, first at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison, then with Russian pianist Rena Shereshevskaya at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
In this majestic projection, Lucas Debargue improvised for the first time for 80 minutes on a 1937 Pleyel that survived the bombings. The cult film, with its unforgettable, gothic, dark and hypnotic sets, realized with the immense means already used in the early days of Hollywood and chiaroscuro lighting, deserves a musical accompaniment of the same dimension. A challenge that Lucas Debargue met with total immersion, with melodic elements provided by the audience. The audience were invited to take part in a sort of introductory workshop, where they were introduced to the characters and asked to come up with melodies for each of them. Surprisingly, Lucas Debargue chose the themes of’Indiana Jones for the Vicomte Raoul, Shakira for the fiancée and The Pink Panther for the Phantom. But this unexpected choice proved successful. Lucas Debargue kept the film's tension and the audience's attention by interpreting his melodies with harmonic richness and brio, even if certain passages suffered a little from octave repetition or tremolos, and sometimes lacked simplicity or rhythmic breaks depending on the scene. But who could do better in such an 80-minute live challenge?
After the concert, in an interview published on social networks, Lucas Debargue declared himself satisfied and at the same time drained. And so were we, the audience. Towards the end, as the ghost stalks his boat through the sewers between rats and vapors, musical tension and subtlety were at their peak, culminating in a symbolic Don Juan, played by Vicomte Raoul, triumphing over evil to save his sweetheart.
The challenge of the Grand Récital and the Cinémathèque suisse has been met: to break down barriers and open up the public to emotion, creativity and interaction.
The second season of Le Grand Récital will run from September 2026 to April 2027.
