35. A Valediction in Song. Especially apt if you are ín need of comfort.

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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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Hello. Today we're going to concentrate on song, and in particular, arguably the most famous cycle of all. In his early 80s, Ricardo Stras moved to Switzerland with his wife, and when he was 84, he wrote what would probably become his last work. Although they were only given this title when they were published after his death in 1949. The song was had an inspiration in a poem by Joseph von Eichendorff called Armentroth at the Sunset, where an elderly couple sees the settings on and pose the question. Accordingly, it was the first one he wrote. There is nothing other than morbid or desperate about the song. The overriding mood is more one of calm. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Perhaps as a result of being married to the top of soprano, Ricardo Charles probably had a greater awareness of the abilities of the scope of the soprano voice than any other composer before. And you'll remember that his father was a prominent horn player, so it's not surprising that that instrument features regularly in the song. Such a well-known work, it means that every famous soprano has recorded it, and the choice is therefore huge. Those of you who know these songs will now be wondering which court the select design on this occasion. And obviously I can't please everybody. Well, the one I've gone for perhaps is not one you might expect. I stumbled upon this recording recently that the famous soprano is oily Isakowski, and she really pours her soul into them as her voice as well over the music. I'm sure some of you would prefer if I just play them straight through, but for the benefit of those for whom this is going to be the first lesson, I do think that giving you the English translation before each one is a help. The first is a holding spring. In the dark sky of old, I have long dreamt of your trees and blue skies, of your scents and the songs of a bird. Now you lie revealed in glistening splendour, flashed with light, like a wonder before me. You know me again, you beckon tenderly to me. All of my limbs quiver from your blissful presence. The rain sinks coolly on the flowers, summertime shudders quietly to its close. Leaf upon golden leaf is dropping down from the tall acacia tree. Summer smiles, amazed and exhausted on the dying garden dream. Long by the roses still it tarries, yearns for rest. Slowly it closes its great weary eyes. It's a really big moment. But I love the way Isakowski doesn't succumb to the temptation of really letting go and milking it in this beautiful passage that remains controlled and serene throughout. Now that day has tired me, my spirits long for the starry night, kindly to enfold them like a tired child. And leave all your doing. Brow and forget all your thoughts. Now all my senses want to sink themselves into slumber. And the soul unwatched wants a soul in the flight, and in the magic circle of night, it lives deeply and a thousandfold. Where, as it were, it all began. Through want and joy, we have walked hand in hand. We are both resting from our travels now. The quiet country side below us. Around us the valleys incline. Already the air grows dark. Too large, still four alone, half dreaming into the haze. Come here and let them fly about. Soon it is a time for something. We must not go astray in the solitude. Oh spacious, tranquil peace, so profound and the gloaming. How tired we are of travelling. Is this perhaps a death? Right at the end, after the thing has posed that question, is this perhaps a death? Australia introduces the so-called transfiguration theme from his own tone poem, Death and Transfiguration, written sixty years before. It's that moment of acceptance, the moment symbolic of conversion into something spiritual. Whether you believe in something afterwards or not, there's no denying that this brief passage, with its bird like fluttering on the flute, referring to the lark in the text, is a rather heavenly resolution to the work.

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Thank you for listening to Perfect Pitch with Nick Ely Hutchinson. He'll be back again next week with some more treasures for you. So please do join in then. And you can subscribe to this podcast by clicking on the link below.