This program explores the connection between bird calls, nature, and the supernatural. Rameau’s Tendres Plaintes evokes sighing, melancholic gestures, while Le Rappel des Oiseaux explores birdsong through elaborate ornamentations, idiosyncratic to the French baroque keyboard style. In Olivier Messiaen’s Petites Esquisses d’Oiseaux, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, and skylarks emerge in vivid, crystalline textures.

Schumann’s Waldszenen transports the listener to a forest, where nature is imbued with both beauty and mystery. Among these poetic vignettes, Vogel als Prophet stands out as an enigmatic prophecy delivered through the voice of a bird. The program concludes with Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 2, a work that embodies what the pianist and scholar Boris Berman refers to as polypersonalia —a paradoxical blend of soaring lyricism, aggressive brutality, cabaret-like parody, and mechanical precision. The third movement draws upon the rich tradition of skazki, or Russian mystical fairy tales, reminiscent of the music of Prokofiev’s older Russian contemporaries, such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Medtner. Through these selections of works, the program traverses a vast landscape of nature’s wonders, supernatural whispers, and human imagination.

This event is funded by the Ocean County College Foundation.