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...

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 A correspondence began and a world of unpublished music saw the light of day.TRACKLIST1.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