22. Get your dancing shoes on!

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Do you think that classical music is not for you and you don't know where to start? Or maybe you're a fan already and would welcome a fresh approach. You've come to the right place. Perfect pitch is for everyone, beginners or experts, whatever your age. Lend Nick Healy Hutchinson your ears for his weekly dose of classical music that will enrich your life.

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Last week, the music we listened to focused a little on the reflective and slightly melancholy. So now, in the time-houred phrase, for something completely different. A few pieces which are likely, if not to actually get you dancing, certainly put a spring in your step. The music to the comic ballet La Phil Malgarde, The Wayward Daughter, now one of the most frequently performed in the repertoire, has been set to music by about half a dozen composers over the years. The most famous of whom was Ferdinand Erold, a Frenchman born in the last decade of the eighteenth century and surviving only thirty-three years into the next. Little else of his music is performed nowadays, so he's another, I'm afraid, who slips into the one hit wonder category. And within the ballet, the clog dance can almost be labelled the same way. But it's a jolly piece to set us off, here played by the Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by Barry Wordsworth. When we heard the prelude to the first act of his opera Lone Grin. I'm gonna stick with the same opera now and play you the prelude to the third act. The music here could hardly be of greater contrast to the prelude to Act One, which you might remember as being ethereal and heavenly in nature, Wagner stressing that in his extensive use of the strings. Lonegrin is a knight of the Holy Grail, who has come to rescue Elsa in a dispute about the rightful heir to the throne. Just like all good stories, such as the water sprite Rusalga, which we also heard about on a recent podcast, the rescue comes with a condition namely that she cannot ask his real identity. Given that she's about to marry him, you might think that's not an unreasonable thing to know. But his detractors, so enough uncertainty in Elsa's mind that she just can't resist. It's a fatal mistake. Loingren must return home on revealing his identity. And in what some may think as something of an overreaction, Elsa drops dead in grief. This piece is often played as an encore, and the chances are that you may well know it. But I wonder if you know what it's all about. These few minutes represent the wedding party itself, before Lowengrin leads Elsa into the bridal chamber. I sometimes wonder if the music had been written by a woman, whether it might have shown a little more restraint, even trepidation. Listen out for that second theme, which comes in almost immediately, with four notes on the brass and how they are repeated, each repetition rising by a few notes. A musical third to be precise, all adding to this sense of excitement and anticipation. It's a few minutes of relentlessly joyful music, and the second theme I was talking about caused Berlios to comment. Nothing comparable to this can perhaps be found in all music of a grandiose vigour, force, and brilliancy. Launched forth by the brass instruments in unison, and then going on to likening the strong beats at the beginning of the phrases to cannon shots which make the listener's breast quake. By the way, a little trivia for you. The famous bridal chorus, which we now all know as Here Comes the Bride, actually comes after the ceremony. I'm not sure whose idea it was to use it as we do now, but it's one of those habits which has just stuck over the years. The prelude to Act Three of Wagner's Logrind is played here by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. So we're going to listen to it in full now. I'll try and keep this brief, but I think you'll enjoy it that much more if I make some sort of a stab at guiding you through the music. The suite opens in the same way as the opera. The young Octavian, sung by a mezzo soprano to emphasize his youth, is having an affair with an older lady, the Marshallin, whose distinguished military husband is never around. We join them just as they have finished doing what people have an affair do. So it's a good job that the curtain doesn't go up any earlier. They're now, shall we say, in a state of some relaxation. Moving on, her cousin, Baron Ox, wants to marry a young girl called Sophie and sends off Octavian to make a proposal on his behalf with a presentation of a silver rose. That plan doesn't quite work because they fall in love with each other on first sight. And about four and a half minutes into the piece, you get these few minutes of tender music reflecting that moment, the cascading tune being the light motif of the rose. Followed by a brief outburst of anger as the scene has been witnessed by a couple of maids who report it to the Baron. The music doesn't strictly follow the chronology of the opera, because at this point it reverts to an earlier triumphant walk. And what a fabulous tune it is. With lots of Strauss's hallmark rich and luscious harmonies. This in turn leads us to the brief but expansive passage which heralds the arrival of the final melody of the trio, when everyone accepts the right and inevitable outcome. The Marshallon graciously accepts that love and age don't always go together, and the Baron has to accept that Sophie and Octavian have eyes only for each other. The beginning of this heavenly trio is marked by a solo trumpet and picked up by a solo violin. Strauss really holds back here. He knows what's coming in the music, but doesn't want to give it away too soon. This is the lovely thing about his music. It squeezes the pips over and over and over again. But he always gives us what we want, and we just have to be patient. Because the wait is so worth it. With an ecstatic climax on the brass. It's a glorious moment. We subsided to the original theme before returning to this most joyous of waters with chords and orchestration. You wouldn't think possible of evoking such an audience. So we started today with a fairly simple clock dance, and we're finishing it with some of the richest water music you're ever likely to hear. The sweet for Ricard Strauss's most popular opera, The Horses and Cavalier, is played here by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn.

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That's it for now. Thank you for listening to Perfect Pitch with Nick Healy Hutchinson. He'll be back again next week with some more treasures for you, so please do join him then. And you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on the link below.