23. Freshness, anger, comfort, and menace.

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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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Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. I know we've got to be very careful about using such terms nowadays, but somebody once pointed out that the odd numbers could reasonably be labelled as masculine in a slightly heavier overall impression, and the even numbers as feminine, being generally lighter and more delicate. But as generalizations go, it's actually not a bad one. First performed at the same concert as his seventh in 1814, it's one of those slightly underrated works. It's probably performed more often than his first, second, and fourth, but nothing like as much as his revolutionary third, the Eroca, the famous fifth, the pastoral sixth, the jubilant seventh, and the mighty ninth. But it's widely believed to have been the composer's favourite, which he nicknamed My Little Symphony. So he was less than thrilled that it wasn't greeted with the enthusiasm he thought it deserved. By this time, almost completely deaf, Beethoven's gestures on the conductor's rostrum were largely meaningless, and the orchestra had to rely on following the lead violin. This, by the way, is a practice not completely unheard of today, even if rare. Orchestras who focus their eyes on the lead violin are making it quite clear of how they rate the man on the podium. The piece is shorter than the other eight, and lighter in touch, but no less rich in texture for that. We're going to listen to the first movement now, which is marked Allegro Vivace Ecompodio, fast and lively and bigger. This is where picking the right recording really matters. I remember hearing one live performance, and sighing with disappointment, I hope not audibly, at the heavy and pedestrian opening. But this is also the enlightening and surprising nature of the live performance. You just get used to your own recording and assume that's the only way it can be played. Nicholas Arncore and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe deliver exactly the freshness I'm hoping for. This is like opening the front door and having a bunch of flowers thrust in your face and then discovering halfway through that there are actually loads more for you before the tune declines to a whisper and the van is empty. A strange image maybe, but see what you think. Elvira, one of the Don's many discarded conquests, was played by Catalina Cavalieri, who complained that her role did not have any standout arias for her to show off her skills. And there are pictures of her which might suggest she had the required assets to prove her point. Anyway, she asked Mozart to address the matter. Be careful what you wish for, as they say. She got herself a blockbuster of a melody or write, but it came at a price. It requires truly phenomenal breath control. I've already mentioned masculine and feminine in the context of Beethoven's openings, and now I must use another phrase which is almost impossible to degender in an unclumsy way. Because this is a showpiece aria which uh separates the men from the boys. Don Giovanni is not just one of Mozart's greatest operas, it's one of the greatest operas by anyone anywhere ever. A masterpiece which encompasses Jones galore, comedy, drama, all underlined with a clear moral message ingredients which combine to make it a favourite of many. In short, it's a story of a murderous Lothario who is warned his time will come, as it does in spectacular fashion. When the ghost of one of his victims, the father of one of his conquests, accepts Don's invitation to dinner, he is given several chances to repent and in refusing to do so is engulfed in the flames of hell. Barbara Fritoli, who was born in 1967, is a soprano who stands out amongst so many others in this aria. Me to sing it too quickly is to lose out on the dancing woodwind in the background, especially the clarinet, a conversation device between singer and instrument which Mozart so ingeniously uses elsewhere. And to sing it too slowly is too cheap, because it avoids the breathing difficulties which come with speed. There are a couple of minutes reflection, and it's easy to see, especially with the orchestration, that she's not a happy bunny. Hell has no fury is the message here before launching into the aria proper. Enjoy it for the lovely singing and tune that it is, but be sure to listen out for thirteen seconds of acrobatics in one breath towards the end. The musical term for this vocal run is called a melisma, basically singing the same syllable on multiple notes. What are you singing about? Oh, just the usual lament?

unknown 14:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

You've cast me aside, you're gonna get your come upons, you're a cad and a bounder, but I still fancy you damn it. She was, apparently, particularly taken by the second one in F sharp, and it's hardly surprising, as it must rank her one of the most lovely short pieces for piano. It's played here by Magdalena Bachewska. And just when you thought it was safe to relax, we're going to finish off with something rather more menacing. Ballet is a divisive art form, and not just for the performances. I'm not amongst its greatest fans, and will no doubt fall file of many experts when I align myself closely with Bateman's view, but most ballets would be quite delightful if it were not for their dancing. When you consider that early 20th century Russia was a period abundant with ballet compositions and personalities, I didn't see Pavlova, Vyagolev, Markov, I was surprised to find so many eminent native writers and composers who are considerably more escaping and later. I don't understand anything about ballet. All I know is that during the intervals of the ballery knows things like horses. You don't need to be a forensic historian to know that this was a period in Russia of unimaginable turmoil. The first 30 or 40 years of the 20th century in the regime under Stalin were so ruthless, bloody, and unforgiving that they could almost be said to have been rescued by the arrival of the Second World War. It was not a time when you would expect the arts to thrive. But whilst they struggled, they were not at the title. An only child born in Ukraine, he had a precocious talent of the keyboard and an arrogant personality with it. He wrapped people up the wrong way, and his modern approach to composition wasn't welcomed in either America, the way he fed initially or Europe. And to be the creator of anything words, art or music in his homeland was to risk a mysterious disappearance unless it conformed as expected. Even his and his wife Nina was dispatched to a labor campaign under suspicion of the eye. So it's hard to trace much happiness in a man's life, which ended at the age of 50 on exactly the same day as Carlisle. But he must actually rank it as one of the foremost apprentices composers. Nowadays he's most widely known for the setting of Peter of the World effect. But his music of Romeo and Judith effect is a long way to support impatience view I mentioned earlier. This is a printing extract from the ballet effect, the dance of the night effect, has been used for helpful backdrop. Most notably for the television program The Apprentice Effect, which is a neat RNA for Backoffia as far from being a model student. But here you're going to get a little more when the moods are often Juliet joins the dance only for a solar sector to remind you that trouble is not far away. It's a menacing passage. The Dance of the Nights from Bacoffia's music for Romeo and Juliet is played here by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lauren Marcel.

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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.