44. Playful, uplifting. sorrowful; and the launch of Cancer and Pisces

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.

I've never had the patience to be a fisherman, being a bit of an instant gratification kind of person. But in 2008, one of my oldest friends rang me to invite me for a day on the test in Hampshire. Most anglers would jump at such an invitation. But the idea seemed a little daft at the time, as by then I was already in a wheelchair. But the word no barely featured in McMay's vocabulary. And his indefatigable optimism was determined to make it work. Conditions were absolutely perfect, but experimenting different spots was not a luxury easily open to me. But the patience and keen eye of his ghilly Graham Wood resulted in me being planted at a prime position, where to my great delight and surprise I cast a line onto a three and a half pound trout. The thrill was enough for others to down tools to come and watch, and with the aid of some gentle words and nothing more, I was able to bring the fish to the bank for Graham to let it. I can honestly say that the smile on his face and the high five he gave me as he climbed out of the water gave me far greater pleasure than the prize of the catch itself. Mick's optimism had once more prevailed. But this is a bittersweet memory for me now, because although I was in a wheelchair, Mick was himself already and unknowingly suffering, and still five years away from being diagnosed with an incurable cancer. It's a diagnosis which normally spells the end of its victims within 18 months, and yet Mick typically divide the odds and lived a very full life for another eight years before finally succumbing in March this year. In that time, it packed in more than most of us will do in a lifetime, having the most remarkable impact on thousands of people in his charitable work. Every penny of which goes to Cancer Research UK. And in May this year, next month, the Cancer and Pisces Trust is launched in Swinton to fund Days on the River to provide therapy for those affected by cancer. I commend it to you highly. And you can find details about it on cancerandpisces.org. You hardly need to be the world's greatest loser to deduce the music I'm going to play now. Schubert's Trad Quintet is another one of those very popular pieces which can suffer from being overplayed. But in the right hand, uh you can only delight in Schubert's mastery of playful melody. And it doesn't get much more authentic than this live recording of a farewell concert of the Wigmall Hall in 2018 by the Schubert Ensemble. We're going to listen to the fourth movement of Schubert's piano quintet, The Trout, beginning with a principal theme followed by a few variations. One last thought. The principal tune belongs to the fisherman, and whether it's played on the strings or the piano, the underlying response is the clear sound or the unknowing, innocent fish, ducking, skipping, and dancing through the water. I often think the tuber may even have been on the side of the fish, egging it on away from its predator. And this is an approach not so far away from Mick. Yes, the challenge of the hunter is to conquer. But the victor also has the power of release, and with very few exceptions, this is exactly what Mick would do. I have heard this piece maybe hundreds of times, but I'm not sure I shall ever listen to it in quite the same way again. Gunot was a deeply religious man who toyed with the idea of priesthood, but turned his hand to composition instead, concentrating, perhaps unsurprisingly, on choral and religious music. Not much of his music is played nowadays. Although popular in his native France to begin with, he must have been a little surprised to find himself as something of a nobody after returning to his country following a three-year absence in London during the Franco-Prussian War. Of the works for which he's now best known, his opera Faust is the most famous, but a close second is Romeo and Juliet, largely thanks to this dramatic and life-affirming aria Je Ve Viva, I Want to Live, sung by the young Juliet in Act One. You can really hear the breathless enthusiasm of a young girl with her life ahead of her, a passion brought out in this performance by the American soprano Rennie Fleming. And so far I've managed to do this without any exposure to the singing. That day will come, but I'm going to defer it just a little longer with another of those sublime orchestral passages. This one from the final opera, The Twilight of the Gods, from its four-part ring cycle. I'm not even going to attempt the briefest of synopsis about the ring, but the story, the libretto, the music, in fact everything comes from Wagner's imagination and must probably go down as one of the greatest achievements in all music, whether you want it or not. This is the moment that Steve Feed meets his death at the hands of Hagen. The music opens ominously, and after three increasingly loud notes on a double basis, a cup of brass coincides with a spear being plunged into Sea Feet and falls to the ground dead. The ensuing interviews represents a funeral march as the body is taken away. Wagner's orchestration is at its best here. He establishes its almost threatening underlying rhythm on two distinct chords, which forms a thread through the whole passage. After the nettle brass dies down, Ober and the Baronet leads gently to a stone buildup with tubers before a piercing trumpet heralds the beginning of a few moments of highly dramatic solemnity, with its wonderful rhythm returning before petering out as the body leaves the stage. Siegfried's death and funeral march is played here by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by George Scholte. Gabriel Foray, who recognized we had a couple of weeks ago, might not even audio choice. Until I tell you that he was a great fan of Wagner, and would visit by Wright and his friend Andrew Message. Together, they would mimic some of the themes which featured in the ring cycle on the piano. Foray wrote a great deal of piano music throughout his life, but this set of dances written with his friend is a light-hearted parody with some of the themes and light motifs which appear in the cycle. Titled appropriately Souvenir de Bayreuth. Chitozi or Kashiro and Ju Ying Song are the pianists.