Lorna Griffitt, Piano

Join pianist Lorna Griffitt for an evening of solo piano works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Wieck Schumann and Debussy. On the bicentennial of Beethoven’s death, Griffitt will perform his last piano sonata in C Minor, Opus 111, with its dramatic, angular, virtuosic opening movement followed by a timeless and sublime set of variations in C Major. For the final work on the program, Griffitt will present Claude Debussy’s Estampes (Prints). Written in 1903, the popular suite consists of three movements: Pagodes, inspired by the Javanese Gamelon music of the Paris Exhibition Debussy heard in 1889, La soirée dans Grenada with its depiction of a sultry evening in Granada, Spain brought to life by the seductive rhythm of the habanera, ending with Jardins sous la pluie, with its representation of a storm in a French garden, with the sounds of rushing water and wind and occasional moments of the simple calm of children’s folk melodies.