Catalog d'oiseaux

How we change.

Listening to Messiaen's "Catalog d'oiseaux" today brings back memories of listening to it 25 years ago and not liking it very much. It seemed like such a crazy enterprise, and the pieces didn't even seem to be trying for any kind of unity or development. It seemed like swatches of music stuck together in a patchwork. The swatches themselves were interesting but also did not develop within themselves. The repetition drove me crazy.

Today, listening to the Anatol Ugorski recording, I think that I must have been young and impatient. The pieces seem immensely vibrant, written in a musical language of great originality and power.

It may be partly due to recording technology; Ugorski's piano sounds fantastic, whereas the older LPs (Loriod playing?) probably were analog recordings. It could be Ugorski's playing, too; I think he probably takes faster tempi and possibly uses less pedal.

But I am a more patient listener now, more accustomed to music that is not going anywhere. Striving and becoming is not everything; listening to Messiaen is more like prayer than drama, and sometimes prayer is just what we need.