LPF Presents – Rêverie with Lucy Parham and Alistair McGowan

Lucy Parham piano

Alistair McGowan narrator

Rêverie is the fourth Composer Portrait
compiled and scripted by internationally
renowned pianist Lucy Parham

One of the most prolific and innovative
composers of the early 20th century,
Claude Debussy absorbed and transformed
cultural influences from countries as far
apart as Scotland (The Girl with the Flaxen
Hair), Japan (Poissons d’Or) and the USA
(Cake Walk). 

A crucial element of Debussy’s
complex intellectual and emotional world
was an entangled love life that brought

illicit trysts in Jersey, a brush with
a revolver and even a suicide attempt. 

The narrative of Rêverie, which takes
the form of a personal journal, follows
him from his initial success with the Prix
de Rome in 1885 to his untimely death
in 1918. It is punctuated with solo piano works
ranging from the ever-popular
lyricism of Clair de Lune, Rêverie and
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair to such virtuosic
showpieces as Jardins sous
la Pluie, the Etudes and L’Isle Joyeuse.