Pierre's Tuesday Blog

After taking the summer off, the Tuesday Blog returns to its weekly format, and we begin with our monthly selection from the Podcast Vault, as we revisit a montage from March of 2012.

One of the many things that was on our plate for the past few weeks was packing up two of our kids: one for University, the other (who finished in the spring) finally moving out. With these last two departures, my wife and I have begun a new chapter – we are now “empty nesters”.

It is therefore somewhat appropriate that our montage focuses on music inspired by birds.

The major work on the montage is a set of pieces for solo piano by Olivier Messiaen who, among his many interests, was an amateur ornithologist. These six "sketches" (esquisses) were written at the request of Messiaen¹s wife, who wanted a musical depiction of a robin. Of the six pieces, or portraits, numbers one, three, and five represent the robin (rouge-gorge), whose music is the most moderate and gentle. Interspersed with the robin are blackbirds, song thrushes, and the skylark, whose intense and furious music concludes the work. The six pieces are, for the most part, lightly textured and slow, though there are moments of extremely agitated, virtuosic writing.

Respighi’s suite “The Birds” (Gli Ucelli) is represented here by the Hen (La Galina). We will be featuring the complete suite in next week’s post, which launches a new monthly feature – more on that next week.

Among other birds featured here we find the lark (Vaughan Williams), the seagull (André Mathieu), the magpie (Rossini), the swan (Saint-Saens) and even Charlie Parker.

ITYWLTMT Podcast Montage # 47 – Birds
(Originally issued on Friday, March 16, 2012)

Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
“Volière“ (Aviary) from Carnaval des animaux (Carnival of the Animals): (1886)
Uncredited flautist
Guillermo Salvador & Aurora Serratos, piano duo
Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México
Fernando Lozano, conducting

Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879-1936)
“La galina“ (The hen) from Gli Uccelli (The Birds) P. 154
London Symphony Orchestra
Istvan Kertesz, conducting

Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) (1817)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Herbert von Karajan, conducting

Alexander ALYABYEV (1787-1851)
Salaviei (The Nightingale), Op. 24, No. 2 (Arr. Akio Yashiro)
Jean-Pierre Rampal, flute
Futaba Inoue, piano

Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-1992)
Six Petites esquisses d'oiseaux (Little bird sketches), I/54
Louise Bessette, piano

André MATHIEU (1929-1968)
Les mouettes (The seagulls), op. 19
Alain Lefèvre, piano

Josef STRAUSS (1827-1870)
Dorfschwalben Aus Osterreich (Austrian Village Swallows), Op. 164
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Fritz Reiner, conducting

Charlie PARKER (1920-1955)
Chasin’ the Bird (ca. 1948)

Charlie PARKER (1920-1955) and Benny HARRIS (1919-1975)
Ornithology (ca. 1946)
Charlie Parker & The All-Stars Live from the Royal Roost, New-York (1948-1949)

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
The Lark Ascending, romance for Violin and Orchestra (1914)
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Philharmonia Orchestra, Andrew Litton, conducting

Pyotr Ilich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
"Dance of the Swans" from Swan Lake, op. 20 (Act II, Sc. 13)
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, conducting

Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
“Le Cygne“ (The Swan) from Carnaval des animaux
Uncredited cellist
Guillermo Salvador & Aurora Serratos, piano duo

• Original Commentary: http://itywltmt.blogspot.ca/2012/03/...s-oiseaux.html
  
• Detailed Playlist: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/115801969/pcast047-Playlist
  
• Podcat Link (Internet Archive): http://archive.org/details/Birds_63
  
• Poscast Link (Pod-O-Matic): http://itywltmt.podomatic.com/entry/...00_00_00-07_00 (Link valid until 30 september 2014)
  

September 5, 2014, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will feature a new podcast "Mahler Dressed to the Nines" at its Pod-O-Matic Channel . Read more on our blogs in English and in French.

0 Likes