Lisa Moore, a versatile pianist formerly of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, devotes a recital to works by Philip Glass and Julián De La Chica. The former, whose music Moore has long championed, is represented by three pieces: Étude No. 2, Metamorphosis II, and the conclusion to his opera Satyagraha, in piano transcription. De la Chica, a Brooklyn-based Colombian composer who emphasizes meditative simplicity in his 14 Préludes, will accompany Moore on synthesizer.

— Steve Smith - New Yorker Magazine

It’s one of those works, and one of those performances, that invites you to listen to the space in between the notes… Prelude No. 7 has an abandoned 80s fairground vibe with the waltz-like accompaniment in the left hand and the subtle addition of ascending and descending synth passages that float around the melody like an ominous merry-go-round jingle, but from the 80s.

— Rosa Gollan - New Sounds | New York Public Radio WNYC

I will also add that I was not initially receptive to what I heard. However, at a certain point I fell under the spell of this music and came to the conclusion that I was in the presence of a composer who is an extraordinarily deep thinker, someone able to take a listener into mysterious by-ways using  very slender means…

…The set of Preludes reveals a distinctive voice, evocative of distant and lost worlds, with a certain bent towards mysticism… The playing of Lisa Moore is incredibly evocative, she clearly has a great affinity with the work of this composer and the sounds that she produces from the piano can best be described as achingly beautiful. Her commitment to new works and to living composers is legendary, and this album is yet another recorded testament to her exceptional artistry and enterprise. I wholeheartedly recommend this album to all music lovers, with a recommendation that they further explore the music, and the world of Julián de la Chica.

— Stephen Mould - Music Trust

Philip Glass:

• Etude No. 2

• Metamorphosis II

• Satyagraha Conclusion Act III

Intermission

Julián De La Chica: Preludes Op. 8

• No. 1

• No. 3

• No. 5

• No. 6

Intermission

• No. 9

• No. 10

• No. 11

• No. 13

Lisa Moore - Piano
Julián De La Chica - Synt

Listen to the music in Spotify:
Glass: Mad Rush
De La Chica: Preludes Op. 8

Lisa Moore's repertoire and discography include a wide range of piano literature, from baroque to modern - where experimental music, minimalism, and post-minimalism play a important role. Her oeuvre continues to grow with the addition of this album, dedicated to New York-based Colombian composer Julián De La Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.

These 14 preludes are an example of “sensorial-minimalism” and perhaps they are a continuation of the composer's exploration in his two recent cycles: Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5 for piano (performed by the composer himself), and Experimentelle und Unbestimmte Lieder Op. 9 for soprano, piano and synthesizer (recorded by American soprano Rachel Hippert). In these works, and his piano Preludes, Mr. De La Chica organically oscillates between post-minimal and ambient music.

With the constant evolution of music, each epoch engenders new bodies of both performers and audience. In this album, Ms. Moore presents a form of piano art that challenges itself and views virtuosity as a technical practice guided by the search for sound. The repertoire ultimately becomes a way to forge the pianist’s body and way of listening, and it evolves side by side with the creation of sound in time.

Every new school exists because it engages in a dialogue with tradition. Italian pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore reminds us, for instance, that “what is modern about Beethoven’s research is that which the music score does not say: a reflection of the physiological components of the performance, the equilibrium of forces that the performer establishes with the keyboards, something that can also be produced in pages of great simplicity” (Beethoven al piano, 2010). I daresay, without a trace of historiographical reserve, that Lisa Moore’s work exemplifies that dialogue between exploration and the rigorous development of traditional performance practice.

Julián De La Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer were composed in New York City between 2015 and 2017. About these works, the author says: “The Op. 8 cycle is a process that improvises the image that is absent. The hidden image creates emotion, truth and reality… The Preludes are an exploration of another kind of virtuosity... the virtue of sound. What lies behind, what we do not see.” 

The composer proposes ideas, then Lisa Moore’s performance creates a dialogue between those ideas and her performance and sound development. Essentially, what the score does not say exists in Lisa Moore’s unique sound as a pianist, and is what invites us to listen to these Preludes within our living time. 

Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer

Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica LIVE
Preludes Op. 8, Concert Premiere
Artist: Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica
Music by Julián De La Chica

Lisa Moore: Prelude Op. 8 No. 13
Recording Session
Artist: Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica
Music by Julián De La Chica

Lisa Moore: De La Chica, Preludes Op. 8
Interview & Behind the scenes
Artist: Lisa Moore
Music by Julián De La Chica

Lisa Moore performs Philip Glass’ Mad Rush
LIVE at WQXR

Lisa Moore: Philip Glass’ Metamorphosis II
Video

Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica
LIVE at WQXR

The New York Times writes ‘Lisa Moore has always been a natural, compelling storyteller’ while TimeOut New York describes her as ‘the wonderfully lyrical pianist’. Lisa Moore has released 10 solo albums (Cantaloupe, Orange Mountain, IGM, Tall Poppies, Bandcamp) ranging from Leoš Janáçek to Philip Glass. Her 2016 album The Stone People (Cantaloupe), featuring music by John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe, made both The New York Times Top Classical Albums of 2016 list and Naxos’ 2017 Critics’ Choice.

Ms. Moore has recorded more than thirty collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi, Bandcamp). She has worked with over 200 composers and performed globally as both a soloist and a collaborator with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists including the London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, Steve Reich Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars (founding member ‘92-’08), Paul Dresher Double Duo, So Percussion, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Grand Band, TwoSense, and Ensemble Signal. Festival highlights include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Huddersfield, Holland, Graz, Paris d'Automne, Rome, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw - in venues - Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, La Scala, Musikverein, and the Sydney Opera House.

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Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

The operas – “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha,” “Akhnaten,” and “The Voyage,” among many others – play throughout the world’s leading houses, and rarely to an empty seat. Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as “The Hours” and Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun,” while “Koyaanisqatsi,” his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since “Fantasia.” His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop and world music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music – simultaneously.

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Julián De La Chica is a Colombian composer, pianist and record producer based in Brooklyn, NY, whose influences range from American minimalism to the alternative and electronic scene. His work, most of the time inspired by everyday images, the search of personal spiritual reflection and the inner darkness, mixes piano, strings, and classical singers, with electronic keyboards and controllers, crossing over from classical to ambient/electronic music.

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