The popular radio show Early Birds is the source of inspiration for a cheerful program about bird songs in music. A well-known example is the cheerfully chirping birds in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. But there have been countless pioneers and imitators—or copycats—in classical music. The musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra will bring their personal favorites to the IJ-Salon.
Michael Gieler, artistic director of IJ-Salon: ‘Biber was an incredibly inventive Bohemian-Austrian Baroque composer. Long before Beethoven, he was already incorporating realistic bird sounds into his violin music. Today, we’ve invited biologist Alexander Reeuwijk to assess how closely Vivaldi and his fellow composers were able to mimic bird calls.’
