Arizona State University choral professor David Schildkret will be guest narrator for the CSO performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals.” He has written a narration for the work.If you go
› What: “Carnival of the Animals” in the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera Masterworks series.› When: 7:30 p.m. today, Feb. 18.› Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.› Admission: $21-$83.› Phone: 423-267-8583.› Website: chattanoogasymphony.org.
Hordes of videos, packed into every corner of the Internet, feature cats performing all sorts of zany or astonishing feats.
Few of them, however, can measure up to Nora, a gray tabby whose skills and celebrity as an incidental pianist have made her a YouTube celebri-cat. The Times of London praised her penchant for randomly tapping the keys of her owner’s piano as “something halfway between Philip Glass and free jazz.”
In 2009, Lithuanian composer Mindaugas Piecaitis created “Catcerto,” a four-minute, playfully innovative chamber orchestra work set to a video of one of Nora’s performances. It quickly became an Internet sensation. To date, a video of the work’s premiere has garnered more than 5 million views on YouTube.
About 18 months ago, several of conductor Kayoko Dan’s colleagues at the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera brought the “Catcerto” video to her attention and asked if there was any way to program it. A self-described animal lover, Dan says she began formulating a plan.
“I started thinking about ‘How can I present this?'” Dan says. “It’s actually well-written music, beautifully written. I started thinking, ‘What can I program with that short piece?'”
Soon thereafter, one of Dan’s friends, Arizona State University choral professor David Schildkret, approached her with a self-written narration to 19th-century French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals.” At that point, she says, the programming for an animal-themed entry in the CSO’s Masterworks concert series started to coalesce.
Tonight, Feb. 18, the CSO will bring that furry dream to reality with a program featuring “Catcerto,” complete with a projected video of its feline savant, and anchored by Saint-Saëns’ 14-movement piece featuring Schildkret as a guest narrator. Additional works to be performed include a narration by Schildkret of Francis Poulenc’s “The Story of Babar,” and “Thurber’s Dogs,” a piece composed by Peter Schickele and set to animation inspired by the illustrations of James Thurber.
When presented with the idea of arranging an animal-centric concert, Dan says, many works automatically came to mind, such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” and Joseph Haydn symphonies such as “The Bear” and “The Hen.” By programming works that are more contemporary and lesser-known, however, she hopes tonight’s concert will be invigorating to audience and performer alike.
“This is not the music you grew up practicing or playing in school, so most everyone is playing ‘Thurber’s Dog’ and ‘Catcerto’ for the first time,” she says.
“Sometimes, you play the same music over and over again, like Beethoven and Brahms. We absolutely love these masterworks – they made us want to become musicians – but sometimes, it’s really fun to just tackle a new work and challenge us so we’re always becoming better and becoming aware of new music.”
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.
The program
› Francis Poulenc’s “The Story of Babar”› Mindaugus Piecaitis’ “Catcerto”› Peter Schickele’s “Thurber’s Dogs”› Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals”