Lenox — It was an unusual sight, even for the culturally tempered Berkshires. Tanglewood technicians were bringing a grand piano up Lenox Mountain to Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary and placing it neatly in front of the stone fireplace in the 1790 Sanctuary barn last Friday afternoon (July 21). Shortly before the piano arrived, Becky Cushing, director of the three Berkshire Sanctuaries of Massachusetts Audubon, spent a quarter of an hour pulling the cling coverings off the newly installed glass center doors of the barn.
“We want to look our best,” Cushing joked thinking about impressing the crowd of three or four hundred who have registered to attend this coming weekend’s Tanglewood Takes Flight events scheduled over four days at Pleasant Valley and the Tanglewood Campus.
Birdwalks, concerts, talks, a slideshow and an exhibit of bird art are scheduled beginning 5:30 a.m. Thursday through Tanglewood Music Center’s (TMC) 10 a.m. Sunday morning chamber concert.
“What is Tanglewood but music in nature,” observed Ellen Highstein, TMC director and creator of Tanglewood Takes Flight.
She spoke of being inspired by last year’s event at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, England. There, festival artistic director and leading Messiean piano interpreter Pierre-Laurent Aimard created a sunrise to midnight day/night of nature and music centered around French 20th century composer and passionate ornithologist Olivier Messiean’s Catalogue d’oiseaux/Catalog of Birds, a 13 movement, 150 minute composition for solo piano which Messiean wrote between 1956 and 1958 transcribing the songs of 77 birds he heard in his native Camargue region of France. Messiean places each bird in its landscape, time of day or night, weather, colors, scents.
“It’s not my idea but I ran with it,” Highstein said.
Highstein invited Aimard to join her in a Tanglewood/Pleasant Valley version of that day. He agreed. On Thursday, Aimard will perform at a morning recital, an evening concert and take part in two afternoon talks.
Messiean’s connections to Tanglewood, to founder and Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) then-music director Serge Koussevitsky, who gave the first American performance of Messiean’s symphonic meditation Les Offrandes oubliées in 1936 and to the United States developed and stayed strong. Koussevitsky commissioned what turned out to be Messiean’s 10-movement Turangalila Symphonie in 1943. This symphony got its first performance by Leonard Bernstein in 1949. Messiean taught at Tanglewood that year and, again, in 1975.
After World War II, Messiean incorporated birdsong into all his music. In a 1949 interview at Tanglewood, he told New York Times music critic Olin Daumes, “It was only music that kept me alive in a German prison camp in the war. Others, unable to survive the cruelty and horror perished. I was able to write music and so, survived.” He believed music must be interesting, beautiful to listen to and must touch the listener.
He traveled in the USA and wrote Des canyons aux étoiles based on his experience of Bryce Canyon, Utah in 1972.
Tanglewood Takes Flight takes place over four days, — not one — and includes four concerts by the TMC fellows.
A sunrise birdwalk at Pleasant Valley begins the exciting mini festival on Thursday. Then, Aimard gives a recital of movements from Messiean’s Catalogue d’oiseaux on that Tanglewood piano in Pleasant Valley’s barn. At 8:30 a.m., another birdwalk is scheduled at Pleasant Valley.
Cushing said 300 people have registered for the Pleasant Valley birdwalks. She has engaged eight guides, one to lead each group of 15 bird watchers and listeners and eight assistant guides to remain at the end of each group — sweeps — to make sure no one gets lost.
There will be a viewing scope set up in a convenient field for birders with disabilities or mobility restrictions.
“And we have all new chairs for the recital,” Cushing said with delight. The barn doors will be open for listeners on lawn chairs (bring your own) who overflow the barn’s small capacity.
Thursday afternoon the Flight moves to Tanglewood with Music and Language of the Birds, a Talks and Walks event presented by Aimard and Mass Audubon ornithologist Wayne Petersen in the Tent Club, followed by a birdwalk on the Tanglewood grounds.
Birds at Dusk, an illustrated lecture by Aimard and Petersen takes place at Seiji Ozawa Hall at 6 p.m.
At 8 p.m., Aimard will perform a solo piano concert of birdsong in music from the Baroque to the present to include the music of Daquin, Schumann, Ravel, Bartok and Julian Anderson. Aimard’s concert will take as its centerpiece Messiean’s Catalogue d’oiseaux interspersed with electronic works incorporating the same birdsong by contemporary French composer Bernard Fort.
Friday and Saturday TMC fellows will give 7 a.m. solo piano recitals from Messiean’s Catalogue d’oiseaux followed by 8:30 a.m guided birdwalks, both recitals and walks at Pleasant Valley.
At 10 a.m. on Friday, there will be a free reception at Highwood Manor at Tanglewood for the art exhibit “On the Wing” with art from Mass Audubon’s Museum of American Bird Art (MABA) including pieces by John James Audubon himself, Mass Audubon’s first president William Brewster, watercolors of Massachusetts birds by European artist Lars Jonsson, humorous works by Charley Harper and art from children juried by MABA.
The final Tanglewood Takes Flight event is the weekly 10 a.m. Sunday morning chamber music concert given by the TMC fellows. It will feature Messiean’s Oiseaux exotiques/Exotic Birds — meaning birds not of Camargue — which was written in 1955 and 1956, before the Catalog d’oiseaux. It includes seven American birdsongs Messiean transcribed from recordings made for Cornell University in 1942.
“I would like to continue incorporating nature into what we do at the TMC. Every year brings something new. But I would love to think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between us and Pleasant Valley,” Highstein concluded.
Concerts, talks, lectures and birdwalks at Tanglewood are ticketed and can be ordered at: https://www.bso.org/brands/tanglewood/features/2017-tanglewood-season/tanglewood-takes-flight.aspx
All events at Pleasant Valley are free but must be registered for at: https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/pleasant-valley/news-event
Concerts, talks, lectures and birdwalks at Tanglewood are ticketed and can be ordered at: https://www.bso.org/brands/tanglewood/features/2017-tanglewood-season/tanglewood-takes-flight.aspx
All events at Pleasant Valley are free but must be registered for at: https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/pleasant-valley/news-event.
