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Utzon Music 2024 Lisa Moore

17 March 2024

In the Utzon Room

Classical Music

Returning to Australia from New York, visionary concert pianist Lisa Moore finds inspiration in nature, celebrating birds and bugs with the music of Schumann, Philip Glass, Elena Kats-Chernin and more.

A natural and compelling storyteller.

The New York Times

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Lisa Moore unearths the nature of piano

Dubbed “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” by The New Yorker, visionary Australian concert pianist Lisa Moore returns to the Sydney Opera House with a fascinating program celebrating the music of birds and bugs from the Romantic period to the 21st century.

Marvel at the plants and birds of Robert Schumann’s tranquil Forest Scenes alongside selections from Leoš Janáček’s evocative On an Overgrown Path, Béla Bartók’s quirky From the Diary of a Fly and Alexander Scriabin’s trilling ‘Insects’ Sonata. A champion of contemporary music and living composers, Moore pairs these classics of the 19th and 20th centuries with music by living composers: the legendary Philip Glass – his Kafka-inspired Metamorphosis II – Australia’s own Elena Kats-Chernin and American experimental composers Martin Bresnick and Meadow Bridgham. 

I find myself returning to music I love the most - piano music with imagery, and a narrative, descriptive flow. I’ve chosen a group of composers who, through sound, imagine the natural world around us, creating images of landscapes, birds and insects. Wings will flutter, owls will hoot, moths will flicker, and the sun will shine as this music celebrates and sustains the wonders of mother nature.

Lisa Moore

Program

Bugs and Birds: The Nature of Piano

Robert Schumann Friendly Landscape, Lonely Flowers, Bird as Prophet (from Forest Scenes Op.82)
Meadow Bridgham Seventeen Years - the life cycle of the cicada**
Leoš Janáček They chattered like swallows, A blown away leaf, The barn owl has not flown away
Martin Bresnick Ishi’s Song
Béla Bartók From the Diary of a Fly
Philip Glass Metamorphosis II
Elena Kats-Chernin Butterflying
Elena Kats-Chernin Moth Eaten Rag*
Alexander Scriabin Sonata no 10, “Insects” Op.70

*world premiere
** Sydney premiere

Artist Information

Lisa Moore 
Piano

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