# Empty Nest



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

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/montage-47-birdsles-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/2014-09-02T00_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.*


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