Lucas Debargue – Gershwin Variations

For once, we’re going to talk about classical music!

But rest assured, this is classical music that is not far removed from jazz, and indeed comes very close to it, since we’re talking about the music of George Gershwin. A return to the pure tradition, and a worthwhile exercise for any jazz musician’s ear.

Lucas Debargue, classical pianist and composer, trained at institutions including the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and the École Normale de Musique de Paris-Alfred Cortot, came fourth in the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has since performed at some of the world’s leading concert venues, including the Moscow Conservatory, the Mariinsky Theatre and the St Petersburg Philharmonia, the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Following recordings of Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for solo piano and Scarlatti’s 52 sonatas, he has also performed works by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Schubert, Messiaen, Bach, Beethoven and Medtner.

Here, he turns his attention to the music of Gershwin, including works originally conceived for orchestra and subsequently transcribed for solo piano. This is a well-established practice among classical pianists, not unlike the way jazz musicians reinterpret standards. Take the celebrated Rhapsody in Blue, which takes on entirely new colours when presented exclusively on piano, with a single instrument assuming all the roles of the orchestra. Then there are several standards: Embraceable You, Someone to Watch Over Me, But Not for Me, The Man I Love and, of course, I Got Rhythm. These are themes that have long held their place in the jazz pantheon, yet here they are performed in their original form. Their distinctive character offers an opportunity to rediscover Gershwin’s musical sensibility, poised at the crossroads of two musical worlds.

With the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Elim Chan, our pianist offers his interpretation of Gershwin’s Concerto in F, another of the composer’s major works. He rounds off this musical journey with a series of his own compositions, written in the style of, exploring variations on the theme of Summertime.

This is a reading of a timeless body of work that is both deeply considered and inventive. Gershwin’s music left its mark on an entire generation of jazz composers, and listening to it through a classical lens can only enrich the musical and historical vocabulary of today’s performers engaging with his legacy.

In short, this is a classical album that deserves an essential place in any jazz record collection!

Line Up:

Lucas Debargue – piano

Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Elim Chan

Gershwin Variations, Hit Couleurs Jazz released by the Label Sony Music, on September 18, 2026.