Exotic birds and indoor pleasures

I wish I could send my little group of followers a cookie this morning, but a picture will have to do. I hope you have a sweet Valentine's day. It's raining and dreary in Seattle but who cares? John gave me bunches of roses, and tonight I'll make him mini lobster tails from Safeway. If they turn to rubber under the broiler, we can still wash them down with the excellent champagne my brother gives us each year for Christmas. Life is good...

It was an interesting Symphony program yesterday, starting with Ravel and Mozart then finishing with the big Brahms Symphony #4. We also heard a short piece seldom performed (at least in Seattle) called the Oiseaux Exotiques (Exotic Birds) for Piano and Small Orchestra. It was composed by Oliver Messiane in about 1956, and the guest soloist Peter Serkin played it along with a short rondo by Mozart.

Pianist Peter Serkin

Peter Serkin is a well-known pianist, and the son of the famous Rudolf Serkin, who was also his teacher. After a day of piano lessons, he said his dad would continue to expound on his son's various strengths and weaknesses. Peter commented that while many boys took lessons from his father, his continued on at the dinner table!

But back to the birds. Messiaen composed music for over 50 years, but he was also a serious ornithologist and nearly all of his compositions contain bird calls or bird symbolism. The work we heard supposedly has 40 different bird songs, but they were not birds of the French countryside. They were exotique birds from America, China, India, Malaysia. It sounded chaotic at times with lots of percussion and diabolically difficult piano playing for Serkin. The piece ends with the Indian White-crested Laughing Thrush-- a single note pounding the first and only regular rhythm. A little bird for such a big noise.

Nova would have said, "loud birdie up."

White-crested Laughing Thrush

It is probable that in the artistic hierarchy birds are the greatest musicians existing on our planet.
Oliver Messiaen