I wonder if I had it in me to get up at 3:00 in the morning to be at a concert at 4:30 am. The answer is a resounding NO, unless… the concert took place at a bird sanctuary. And offered music by Messiaen. (Although playing him on the piano was a bear rather than a bird. Ok. Done with the bad puns.)

Last Sunday the entire grandiose Catalogue of Birds by Messiaen was played across different places in nature during the course of a day into the night. Starting with a walk at dawn to hear the real birds, the concert commenced among the reeds. At night it finished fittingly in a hall, performing the calls of the night owl. Luckily all this happened in England, at the Aldeburgh Festival last week, so I didn’t have to stay up late, which is harder for me than to get up early. Wouldn’t have liked to miss the owl. Unluckily, this seems like an event of a lifetime, organized with British precision, stamina and a sense of adventure, shuttling the audience from one spot to another, an experience I would have relished. The festival director, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, was also the pianist, playing, as you can see in the clip below, with hand warmers in the dawn!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15xFa2U5thw

Thirteen individual pieces, each echoing the song of a particular bird from France, comprise this musical work, finished in 1958. From then on, Messiaen traveled all over the world to transcribe songs of birds in the wilderness, including exotic birds, and incorporate the tunes into his compositions. Paul Griffiths observed that “Messiaen was a more conscientious ornithologist than any previous composer, and a more musical observer of birdsong than any previous ornithologist.” Three of my favorite things: music, birds, travel! I wonder if he would have considered taking a photographer.

Here is a glowing review of the entire Aldeburgh event http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/messaiens-catalogue-of-birds-pierre-laurent-aimard-aldeburgh-fes/ Makes me jealous.