French pianist Lucas Debargue has forged a uniquely unconventional career. After leaving music to study literature, he returned to the piano and rose to fame at the 2015 Tchaikovsky Competition. Though he placed fourth, his “artistic vision and creative freedom” earned him the Moscow Music Critics’ Prize and a reputation as a singular talent inspired as much by jazz and cinema as by the classical tradition. For his return to Lingotto on Friday, November 20, Debargue presents a program reflecting his art: it opens with the Baroque wit of Scarlatti, followed by the delicate textures of Ravel’s Sonatine and Jeux d’eau and the power of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No. 2. The evening concludes with his own original composition on a theme by Gershwin.