by Peter Feher
Some of the best birdwatching in Cleveland this season has, unusually, been at Severance Music Center.
The songs of dozens of different species could be heard in Reinberger Chamber Hall on Friday evening, October 11, when Spanish pianist Gregorio Benítez presented selections from Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux (Catalog of birds).
This just happened to be the same weekend that The Cleveland Orchestra, upstairs in Mandel Concert Hall, was performing two avian-inspired works: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto, which ends with an echoing seagull effect, and Jean Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony, whose finale is meant to depict swans in flight.