Musicians aren’t expected to be early risers. So it was bizarre that last week at the Aldeburgh Festival, the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard was at his keyboard by 4.30 am – with an audience and the BBC in wrapt attendance. And what’s more, he was still there, performing, after midnight.
It was the beginning of a day devoted to Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux: a massive suite for piano that turns birdsong into art. Played here at Aldeburgh in strategically timed concerts that extended across nearly 20 hours, it was designed for hearing in conjunction with the real thing, in the Suffolk marshlands.
