After acclaimed recordings of music by the great masters, Lucas Debargue shines much-needed light on a composer he is determined must be heard: Milosz 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. 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, were 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 A correspondence began and a world of unpublished music saw the light of day.TRACKLIST1.           Andante pour violon et piano    Concerto No. 3 pour piano, cordes et percussions    2.           I. Allegro con fuoco - Allegro Appassionato    3.           II. Allegro    4.           III. Presto    5.           IV. Adagio    6.           V. Allegro con fuoco    7.           Vocalise No. 2 - Andantino    8.           Vocalise No. 3 - Vivace    9.           Nostalgie du pays, extrait des Miniatures Polonaises    Concerto Rustico pour violon, cordes et percussions    10.         I. Allegro    11.         II. Andantino    12.         III. Presto    13.         Vocalise No. 1 - Andante    14.         Vocalise No. 4 - Andantino    ​​​​​​​15.         Stabat Mater pour cordes et timbales

Double-album project that represents the dualities in Mozart's music and life - light versus shade, human verses divine, life versus death, playful versus profound, disaster versus triumph. The 1st album focuses on the repertoire of a concert Mozart gave in Leipzig in May 1789 in a very difficult period in his life. The 2nd enters around a final trip to his beloved Prague (Aug. 1791) where his opera, Clemenza di Tito, was premiered and he conceived his Clarinet Concerto, having presented his Prague Symphony there some years earlier.

This is Martin Frost's 3rd recording of this work and is performed here on Mozart's favorite instrument, the Basset Clarinet. This also includes the first recordings of Frost conducting.

“Every performance of a work is its own statement, contains its own truth…. This release marks exactly 20 years, almost a generation, since my first recording of the work, and exactly 10 years since my second. The world has changed immeasurably in that time. I have changed, both as an artist and as a person. And we change as listeners.” - Martin Frost