“Birds have always participated in concerts here at Caramoor, where the performances are open-air,” writes Anthony Tommasini in Monday’s (7/15) New York Times about the music festival in Katonah, NY. “Especially in the early evening, they lend their voices and sing their songs…. This weekend, Caramoor … stirred conversations between human and avian musicians in a series called ‘Caramoor Takes Wing! Celebrating Birdsong.’ The main offering was a magnificent performance of Messiaen’s ‘Catalogue d’Oiseaux’ (‘Catalog of Birds’), a dauntingly difficult suite of 13 piano pieces lasting more than two and a half hours, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in three installments over two days…. To broaden its scope, this mini-festival included an outdoor performance of John Luther Adams’s ‘songbirdsongs’ by the Sandbox Percussion ensemble and two piccolo players, along with two Sunday morning bird walks, facilitated by the Bedford Audubon Society … The series began in earnest early Saturday evening in Caramoor’s Sunken Garden, where the clarinetist and naturalist David Rothenberg engaged in a live improvisation with the birds…. As dusk passed into night and Mr. Aimard [played] the first installment of the Messiaen cycle, birds were chirping away. To me, it seemed like Messiaen’s music inspired them to join in even more.”
Posted July 18, 2019
