The Stone People received Critics’ Choice Feb 2017 on Naxos. Check it out here
Press Dec 16 2016: The Stone People made the New York Times best classical music recordings list 2016 – one of 20 cds worldwide. Quote: “‘THE STONE PEOPLE’ Lisa Moore, piano and voice (Cantaloupe Music). The occasion for this disc is an assemblage of John Luther Adams’s three works so far for solo acoustic piano, including the sweeping “Among Red Mountains.” Playing through these stark landscapes with tenderness, Ms. Moore has sensitively set Mr. Adams’s trio alongside similarly atmospheric, somber, often wintry pieces Martin Bresnick, Julia Wolfe, Missy Mazzoli and Kate Moore.” (Zachary Woolfe)
Press Dec 15 2016: The Stone People CD track “Ishi’s Song” (by Martin Bresnick) made the 2016 top staff pick at New Music USA quote: “Lisa’s playing (and singing) here is, as always, supremely musical and controlled and full of intent, and the piece, like all of Martin’s music, is profound, surprising, and rewarding to delve into. The Ishi of the title was the last of his people–the Yahi Indians–and the piece is based on transcription of a traditional song he recorded after being taken in by anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley (his story is definitely worth reading). I’ve heard Lisa play (and Martin introduce) Ishi’s Song live a number of times now, and each performance feels like a brief glimpse into a lost world. The original melody is sung and then braided into shimmering, shifting textures, creating a mirage-like sensation, like being on the edge of seeing or grasping something that ultimately remains elusive.“ (Eileen Mack, Software Engineer)
Press: April 3, 2016 “If you’re going to make a grand piano thunder and clang, you have to be able to do it with the elegance and fervor that pianist Lisa Moore brings to the task. About half of her formidable new release is devoted to music that rolls out in big, granitic masses, including John Luther Adams’ “Tukiliit,” which gives the disc its subtitle, and Julia Wolfe’s pitiless “Compassion.” Moore renders all of it with surprising tenderness and force. But even more striking (at least to this taste) are the contrasting stretches of gentle lyricism. The overlapping, sun-dappled textures of Martin Bresnick’s “Ishi’s Song” flirt continuously with sentimentality without ever lapsing into it, and Kate Moore’s “Sliabh Beagh” — a tribute to her Irish Australian forebears that is at once an invented folk ballad and an extensive piano commentary on that material — ties itself into wonderful self-referential knots. But the most unforgettable glimpse of beauty here comes from composer Missy Mazzoli, whose “Orizzonte” is a still-voiced meditation on eternity, with a subdued yet haunting layer of electronic sounds overlaying the piano writing.” — Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
“On her most recent album, “The Stone People,” the pianist Lisa Moore sings and plays Martin Bresnick’s hypnotic “Ishi’s Song,” a setting of a chant by the last member of the Yahi, who died in 1916…His setting begins with the pianist’s simultaneously singing and playing the song, which starts out sounding sunny, and naïve. As the voice drops away and the piano continues to reiterate the melody, it takes on an increasingly forlorn and alien feel, the husk of a tune that has long since lost its meaning.” — Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim The New York Times
“Moore is on fine form in this collection of fascinating and varied music, and has been beautifully served by her producer and engineer.” — Gordon Kerry The Music Trust
David Lang writes: “This recording takes its name from a piece by John Luther Adams. His Tukiliit is subtitled “the stone people who live in the wind,” and Lisa’s decision to focus on Tukiliit became the organizing principle for the rest of this recording. John’s music is ruggedly elemental, using very restrained materials as a way of probing some of our most fundamental human truths. Who we are. Where we are. How we relate to each other. How we relate to the natural world. His pieces are stark explorations of humankind in its most elemental state, and this CD brings together, for the first time, his complete acoustic music for solo piano. The composers on this recording all share these concerns because they are all composer-explorers. Martin Bresnick’s reliquary for a song sung by Ishi, the last surviving member of a Native American tribe, who died without telling anyone what the words meant. Julia Wolfe’s commitment to an elemental human value. Kate Moore’s exploration of her Irish-Australian heritage. Missy Mazzoli’s pursuit of the unattainable horizon. The mysteries echo down through the ages. Who we are. Where we are. How we relate to each other. How we relate to the natural world.”
Tukiliit John Luther Adams
Among Red Mountains John Luther Adams
Nunataks John Luther Adams
Ishi’s Song Martin Bresnick
Orizzonte Missy Mazzoli
Sliabh Beagh Kate Moore*
Earring Julia Wolfe
Compassion Julia Wolfe
* commissioned by Lisa Moore with assistance from the Australia Council
