“Listen to the birds,” composer Paul Dukas told his student Oliver Messiaen, who would become one of the most important and innovative composers of the twentieth century. Unlike Bela Bartok, who went around Transylvania a century ago with an early Edison cylinder machine that actually recorded peasants singing folk songs to make use of in his compositions, Messiaen never used a recorder, but only his ear and a pen to “transcribe” birds via musical notation in song around him. Messiaen became such an expert on the musical properties of various birds that he became globally renowned as an ornithologist. “Oiseaux exotiques” (“exotic birds”) features more than forty different bird calls and birdsongs for piano and small orchestra which will be performed by pianist Tamara Stefanovich with pianist and conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard conducting this St. Paul Chamber Symphony Orchestra on a program which also includes Debussy’s “Petite” Suite and Aimard conducting the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto from the piano. A master Messiaen interpreter who worked closely with Messiaen, Aimard will be interviewed in a 6:15pm. pre-concert conversation. (Dennis Polkow)
October 3 at University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th, (773)702-8068. 7:30pm. $5-$35.
Walking the Walk: Thirsty Ears Festival Reinvents Itself The reorganization of the concert is just half of the reimagination of the festival. There’s also an entirely separate component: an audio walking tour of the Ravenswood neighborhood.
Departing the Comfort Zone: Ear Taxi Festival’s Ambitious Return In “Up High” two artists confront a shared fear of heights by performing on pedestals on the ninth floor of the penthouse of the Logan Center. One can only imagine what the rehearsals were like.
