“Moore spreads magic” – hot review from the Bari Piano Festival

“ Dear lady Moore, thank you so much, I loved your American piano performance ”, and I write it in English because I hope my little message of thanks reaches you.

Until yesterday I had not had the pleasure of meeting and appreciating the musical talents of the Australian pianist Lisa Moore ; the grace with which she wanted, from the very first bars, to create – and succeeded – the bond with the audience won me over immediately, returning a feeling of welcome even more when she began to speak in good Italian, first to thank the promoter of the concert, as well as her esteemed friend, the affable Maestro Emanuele Arciuli , and then to introduce each individual piece performed.

And so, as part of the seventh edition of the “ Bari Piano Festival 2024 ”, on the warm evening of August 26, inside the enchanting Cloister of Santa Chiara, an artist of international importance performed, exclusively for the country, or to use the words of the maestro, here in the role of perfect presenter and not only of incomparable deus ex machina of the Festival: ““One of the most important exponents of American piano” who has an intense career behind him studded with excellent collaborations, has worked with over 200 living composers, has recorded numerous solo and collaborative albums, without neglecting his participation in orchestras conducted by masters of the caliber of Leonard Bernstein and who will still be talked about for a long time”.

Elegant in her manner and in caressing the keyboard, Moore, a splendid representative of the class of 1964, a legend of contemporary piano, continued her unique journey through overseas music following the common thread of this edition. The program saw her engaged in a selected repertoire of contemporary American music (hence the title of the recital), a genre in which she pours all her professional commitment and her passion that she cultivates and shares with an American group called “Bang on a Can”, promoter and organizer, also, of musical events.

The chosen composers all belong to the latest generations, as our mentor Arciuli explains, that is, those who can be placed in the post-war period onwards and so, before our eyes, a series of magnificent pieces develops that could only begin with a piece composed by the father of American music, Charles Ives, who between 1916 and 1919 composed an absolutely revolutionary piece, a sonata called “Concord” divided into four movements of particular technical and interpretative difficulty, each of which is dedicated to important writers. “ The Alcotts ”, the third and shortest movement, is a tribute to the Alcott family, the birthplace of Luisa May, author of the very popular novel “Little Women”, in which we relive the sweet and at times melancholic representation of the family atmospheres of the famous group thanks to the skilled hands – and heart – of Moore who makes the setting even more enjoyable and lyrical, which is easy for us to imagine and by which we are easily transported, also thanks to the quotation – at times – of a very recognisable “Fifth” by Beethoven, a recurring theme in the entire sonata.

Each piece that follows, including “ Etude no. 2” by Philip Glass, “ Orizzonte ” by Missy Mazzoli, an American composer of Abruzzo origins, a piece that uses electronics to underline its introspective and meditative mood, and “ Earring” by Julia Wolfe , are small masterpieces in which the ingenious combination of notes, keys, pauses, chords, dynamic signs, flats rather than sharps, requires the co-presence of an essential element: an interpreter like Moore who gives depth, character, expression, feeling to the score so as to express and enhance its intrinsic value.

The virtuosity, rendered by the pianist in an apparently simple form passed between her hands and the strings of the grand piano, resounded powerfully but gracefully, sweetly but incisively, tearing our souls away in several passages, as in the case of the beautiful “Ishi’s Song”, a piece born from the transcription (in 2012) of the one in his native language composed by Ishi, the last American Indian who survived his people and which carries with it traces of an understandably tragic and complex story, as we learn directly from the voice of the friendly composer (but not only) Martin Bresnick, present in the room, who also (tenderly) declines words in Italian to present its origin and to invite us to delve deeper into its history.

The very pleasant discovery of most of the pieces written by composers in the lineup, some of whom were unknown to me, was also doubled by having learned, on the same occasion, that many of them were students of Bresnick himself – a professor at the “Yale School of Music”. This is the case of David Lang, of whom Moore performed a beautiful “Wed” (getting married) that the author wanted to dedicate to a friend of his who, although dying, wanted to marry her partner on his hospital bed.. “ marriages are fundamentally optimistic, so I tried to write a piece that oscillates between consonance and dissonance, that creates a balance between tragedy and hope” .

The penultimate piece is a hypnotic “Piano Piece n.4” by Frederic Rzewski, another American composer and pianist (but of Polish origins) known for drawing inspiration from social and historical themes, such as the 36 variations on the theme “ El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” by Sergio Ortega – of which I cannot help but recall the splendid and recent performance by Maestro Arciuli for the Fondazione del Teatro Petruzzelli – and of which the words released by the latter in an interview a few years ago in relation to his friend’s piece become explanatory: “ It begins and ends in an indistinct magma of repeated notes that wanders across the keyboard, as if it came from nowhere and returned to nowhere. But at a certain point something happens: during this flow, an Indian song of South American origin appears, like a ghost, a song of liberation, and then this too disappears, shrouded in the mystery of the night ”; if we add to this the class and expressiveness of our Lisa, the magic can only be definitive.

Moore could only take her leave of us with the same sweetness and elegance that has characterized her performance since the beginning, singing a sweet melody, equal to the smile she maintained throughout the evening, to the notes of a music that sealed and framed a classy evening.

Gemma Viti