Press

What the Critics Say

“I wasn't as impressed as I was by Lisa Moore's range of expressivity on both "The Dream of the Lost Traveller" (composed by her husband Martin Bresnick, based on a poem by Blake) and "Piano Piece No. 4" by Frederic Rzewski (protesting the Pinochet regime, with thunder and hope). Moore is pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, but alone truly distinguished herself.”
Howard Mandel www.artsjournal.com: “Jazz Beyond Jazz”, Jan’08

“Frederic Rzewski’s “Piano Piece .No.4” begins with a Minimalist gesture: a repeated note that morphs into a relentless pounding chord before abandoning the repetition and expanding towards both ends of the keyboard. Lisa Moore gave it an explosive, muscular performance and did much the same for Martin Bresnick’s Dream of the Lost Traveller, a brawny work with a mystical core, courtesy of a Blake text (from For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise), which Moore sang.” Alan Kozinn, New York Times, Jan’08

“ ‘For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise’ was a tour de force for Ms. Moore, the pianist for whom it was written. As she played music of unnervingly repetitive chords, staggered rhythms and delicate filigrees, Ms Moore also spoke and sometimes sang lines from the poet William Blake about a man’s progress through life. The music precisely accompanied powerfully simple computer animation of Blake’s drawings prepared by Puppetsweat Theater.” New York Times Dec 06

“ …it was performed exquisitely with immaculate pedal and detailing, Lisa Moore thrilled with her precision and phenomenal dramatic buildup to an incredible climax.” Sequenza 21, Nov 06

“ Moore, of Bang on a Can fame, has established herself as a very 21st century virtuoso-the sort of pianist who can be counted on to do absolutely anything” New Haven Advocate Nov 06

“And, indeed, there were times when I was able to channel everything else out—the new Lisa Moore solo plus pre-recorded Lisa version of Julia Wolfe's piece for six pianos (‘my lips from speaking’) was a revelation.” Frank Oteri, NewMusicBox

“Paul Lansky’s highly demanding toccata received a performance of breathtaking ease and assurance” Canberra Times, May 2006

“soloist Lisa Moore displayed pianism of the highest order in this premiere performance. The sustained power of her percussive chords was balanced with superb clarity and dexterous fingerwork.” The Australian, July 19, 2005 for Smetanin's "Mysterium Cosmographicum"

“It was also bursting with ideas and sounds from the very first bars: whalelike growls produced by the pianist, Lisa Moore, playing the strings of her piano by pulling other strings across them in an act that evoked everything from the birth of cable to evisceration”   New York Times, Feb 2005

“Gosfield's Overvoltage Rumble was a serious art-rock gas, and a veritable concerto for keyboardist Lisa Moore, who drew upon a sampled vocabulary of sampled analog-synth smudges, smears and blurts.”   TimeOut NY, Steve Smith blog, 2/06

“suffused throughout with powerful, dense passages of fearsome difficulty, and Moore made it look easy…Moore’s thundering virtuosity…she virtually demolished the piano’s lower register at the end.”   Seen and Heard Music Web, Jan ‘06

"This was an honest and heartfelt recital. Moore played with a feisty spirit, unafraid to probe the brooding moodiness in Janacek's music"   
Brisbane Courier Mail, Queensland Festival of Music, July 2005

"...and Lisa Moore who serves as the accompanying pianist provides great comedy and indirect commentary on the action of the play."   
Charleston City Paper for Mabou Mines 'Dollhouse', Spoleto Festival, June 2005

Sydney Festival, January 2004
"Lisa Moore, in her recital at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, following a stint as tutor at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp, played and played and played. And spoke. Sometimes speaking while she was playing. This was flawless pianism. Finely nuanced, lovingly prepared, carefully programmed, 10 out of 10. And it was just a woman and her piano. No films or slides or projections of any sort." Marshall Maguire, Arts Hub 2004

"...Moore plays these (Rzewski) pieces with her customary brilliance, improvising (as encouraged by the composer) to great effect. But it is De profundis that remains in the memory. A setting, for speaking pianist, of sections from Oscar Wilde's letter to Lord Alfred Douglas from Reading gaol, it is full of invention and suits Moore's pianism to a tee. The composer's own recording of the piece (on Nonesuch) is wonderful, but perhaps not definitive. There can be no such thing. This work, more than most, changes its personality, depending upon who is playing/acting it. Where Rzewski has some of Wilde's wry knowingness in his voice, Moore is far more varied in her presentation, more mercurial, and her voice is also more musical than the composer's. Also, she is not a gay man, and so her performance tends to universalise the piece."Andrew Ford ABC Limelight

"Moore presented an extraordinary program at the keyboard and microphone...her four large-scale works, each displaying monumental qualities..." The Australian, Jan 2004

"This must be something to see in concert, Ms.Moore's recitals are said to be legendary in this respect and it makes quite an effect on record as well...Moore's astonishing accomplishment" American Record Guide, Sept/Oct 2003

"...Lisa Moore, pianist, displays all of the qualities necessary to put latter 20th century music over. Superb touch and feel, united with great emotional range and expressivity coupled with a faultless technique. All of this coalesces into warmly human playing of the highest rank capable of eliciting emotion in even seemingly totally abstract music. The Etudes displayed dexterous fingerwork and rhythmic diversity all carried off with aplomb. Again, Mr. Bresnick, like Mr. Ligeti, couldn't be better served in his multi-media piece than by Ms. Moore. The pianopart(s) was strongly evocative of the images on the screen, with augmented dissonances, pretty melodies, alternating strenuous attacks and softly lyrical passages, with myriad tonal colorations weaving in and out..." John Hammel, WNTI, 91.9 F.M. www.wnti.org

"...last Saturday the All-Stars' sensational and sensitive pianist Lisa Moore offered the Janacek Sonata; etudes by Ligeti; Rzewski's ''Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues''; Martin Bresnick's ''The Dream of the Lost Traveller''; and ''Wed,'' by one of Bang on a Can's cofounders, composer David Lang, a lovely, quiet, shimmering piece that is part lullaby, part requiem. Moore herself wore Levis accented by gold lame pumps..." Richard Dyer, Boston Globe

Bresnick's Blake and Ligeti's Legacy:
"...As Moore starts to play the pulsing, determined Prologue, we meet the Lost Traveller, our Everyman companion for this 30 minute piece. He zooms on-screen cane in hand, and hurriedly moves through time and space while trees pan right, sky pans left. Musically this world is built from colouristic expressive recitative, intersticed with pulsing sections of relatively static harmonies which rock unevenly, restlessly. Moore again commands a counterpoint of voice and fingers, sometimes speaking the text to a rhythm; sometimes freer; and sometimes sung, as in the Epilogue's slow and gentle jig addressed to Satan.

Weinberg superimposes many of Blake's emblems onto high grain pixilated backgrounds. A child-faced caterpillar rotates, reminding us of a baby free-floating in the womb. A black & white image of worms or unweaving threads swirl like computer-generated 'eye-candy.' The final projection of a starry night sky above the piece's concluding and life-affirming reiterating major 3rds dissolves to rapt applause from the audience, multiple curtain calls for Moore and the welcome appearance of composer Martin Bresnick who was in the audience.

In an era of the supremacy of visual literacy, Bresnick's collaboration with Weinberg in For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise is an example of evolution in action, as is the creation of the Stuart piano. A coherent multi-sensorial work, it invites sustained attention from a far wider audience than 'pure' concert music can hope to do. The proliferation of buzzwords such as cross art form and multi-media has been used to describe many mediocre efforts. This is not one of them. And regarding the Stuart Piano, in this concert the wealth of artistic stimulus given life by Moore's outstanding performances was so compelling, that awareness of the tool slipped from consciousness as the creations were built.”
Lynette Lancini RealTime online Magazine July 28,2001

"more profound artistically...was Martin Bresnick's touchingly eloquent For The Sexes:The Gates of Paradise..Integral to this piece are the projections behind the piano of 17 of Blake's engravings, which have been subtly manipulated and sequences by video artist Leslie Weinberg..." The Australian July 2001

"De Profundis," Frederic Rzewski's tender, magnificently theatrical setting of Oscar Wilde's letters from the Reading Gaol, is one of the great scores of the 1990s, and it sounds as revelatory as ever in pianist Lisa Moore's brilliant new recording...Also on the disc are Rzewski's four "North American Ballads," and the opening "Dreadful Memories," in particular, is soft-edged and tender enough to elicit tears."San Francisco Chronicle, Kosman, June 2003

"Lisa Moore executed nearly every feat known to a new musician" New York Times

"The whole is an uneasy amalgam of manic states to which Moore brought utter conviction and riveting virtuosity" The Australian (for 'The Pianist Speaks' program)

"The music on this CD is light and extrovert, but you don't have to listen for long to realise there's a dark undercurrent...Lisa Moore is in her element, she can camp it up when necessary, but she also finds the hidden depths." ABC Radio 24 Hours Magazine

"Lisa Moore gave a startlingly good performance: she was lustrous at the keyboard, and at once engaging and challenging." New York Times

"Lisa Moore played... with loving care as the audience hushed under the impact of deeply communicated feeling" Village Voice

"phenomenal pianist Lisa Moore" Village Voice

"Moore returned onstage a changed person-outfitted in black, her hair loose, and wearing a lapel microphone to unleash an astonishing performance of Frederic Rzewski's 'De Profundis' for speaking pianist.....Moore's considerable music theatre skills.....what impressed in all these pieces plus a set of etudes and preludes of Scriabin was Moore's involved approach and the superb clarity of her playing." The Australian (for 'Wilde's World', Adelaide Festival 2000)

"The pianist has to whistle, grunt, moan, and hit various parts of the body, tap on the closed lid, and honk a car horn. At the same time there is Rzewski's typically eclectic virtuoso piano score to deal with. Moore was in her element here and her performance was assured and compelling." Adelaide Advertiser (for 'Wilde's World', Adelaide Festival 2000)

"I prefer her interpretation of the Scriabin pieces, all miniatures, where her ability to pounce on the harmonic skeleton and manipulate its melodic muscle makes perfect musical sense. They are all clearly and convincingly projected, passionately powerful......Blessed with a beautiful speaking voice, her delivery of the actual text (De Profundis) is clear and confronting, often profoundly moving..." RealTime (Adelaide Festival 2000)

"an excellent Australian pianist......it seemed at times that the pianist could not decide whether to play "Mazeppa" or "Mephisto Waltz", so she played them both at once." New York Times

"Lisa Moore's carefully concentrated account of the piano score...was beautifully done....The performance sounded first rate." New York Times

"Lisa Moore's playing throughout is flawless" The Strad

"Lisa Moore is a superb pianist and musician and her unusual program held one's attention - intellectual and emotional - as well as great admiration for her playing - from start to finish.'" Bennington Banner (for 'Pan Slavic Piano' program)

"Much of the best piano playing of the Festival came from Lisa Moore. The music clearly speaks to her and she, in turn through persuasive luminous performances, ensures that the audience is immediately involved in the communicative process between performer and composer." Adelaide Review

"Australian pianist Lisa Moore is an extraordinary champion of contemporary music. Her playing is both powerful and sensitive." American Record Guide

"Lisa Moore mustered brilliant power and athleticism..." Sydney Morning Herald

"Thankfully ever more 'unashamed' an accompanist than her well-known namesake, Lisa Moore excels as a master colourist in both works." Soundscape

"There are few pianists-anywhere-who would have the technique, the imagination or the flair to attempt the program with which she enthralled us...and there are likewise few pianists who could have succeeded so brilliantly and memorably...Lisa Moore had an abundance of power for all the late romantic-early modernist elements of both Janacek and Prokofiev; she had no less command in the reflective moments of this music...Every member of the audience had a favourite from this dazzling array but there was no disagreement about the quality, the energy and the intensity of the experience we shared." The Sydney Sun-Herald

"The proportions of each element felt right and Lisa Moore's playing was thoroughly engaged and engaging." Sydney Morning Herald

"Simply stunning! Lisa Moore's playing is assertive, virtuosic, suggestive. She vitalizes each composers hard copy by communicating all the daring, insolent and sensual impulses of 20th century piano music. Her style? Poetry within contemporary virtuosity." The Canberra Times

"She is a very confident pianist, brave sometimes to the point of risk-taking in the bravura passages, and never afraid to recognise the essential nature of the piano as a percussion instrument...she showed a clear grasp of the complex architecture of Beethoven's music. Moreover, she knows, fruitfully, how to let the music speak for itself in Beethoven's songful and contemplative moods." The Australian

"Moore played with matching inspiration, no cliched performance this. Her slendid technique was always at the service of the music, lyric, lush where necessary and big and brassy and blue in contrasting sections." Albany Times Union

"Gershwin's jazzy melodies rang out blissfully in the careful and delicato hands of award-winning Australian pianist Lisa Moore. Her attention to inner detail brought freshness and vitality to her singing tone in soft, intricate passages, while she came on like gangbusters in the big moments." Albany Knickerbocker News

"Lisa Moore's concert commentaries, given with the same assurance as her playing, were the first to make a definite link between the arts of music and painting." Brisbane Courier Mail

"The fiendishly difficult piano part was brilliantly handled by New York-based Australian Lisa Moore" Brisbane Courier Mail.

"It's (Copland Piano Concerto) full of jazzy, boogie rhythms mixed with touches of Rachmaninov-and the mixture doesn't always work too well. However, it gives plenty of opportunities for the pianist and Lisa Moore seemed well-equipped to take them. Her opening passages were nicely weighted and she showed no lack of technique in the thundering runs." The Australian

"Two major delights of this recital were the performance of Elliot Carter's cello-piano sonata by David Pereira and Lisa Moore, a pair of interpreters truly in tune at the highest level." Sydney Morning Herald

"Pianist Lisa Moore played Mario Davidovsky's Synchronisms 6 for piano and electronic sounds-a beautifully executed performance of a very charming work." Nova-Scotia

"One of those who undoubtedly maintained a high degree of mastery was the pianist Lisa Moore, guest director of this first Greenway program, a knee-bending, foot-rocking conductor of Trevor Pearce's Fragile....and an excellent soloist in Charles Ives's Three-Page Sonata, a work which manages to be visionary, irreverant and genuinely entertaining." Sydney Morning Herald

"The performers were Lisa Moore and David Pereira, two musicians who, if presented as overseas celebrities by the ABC, might well provoke a sensation." Sydney Sun-Herald