46. Upbeat music - and music for love, young and old.

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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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Even if there are plenty of composers beginning with a letter K, music dictionaries don't tend to waste too much time on them, in the same way they do for composers beginning with a letter B. But the Armenian Soviet Aram Kachaturian, who died in 1978, will find a slot in even the smallest of versions. Born in 1903, his life would therefore span two world wars, and as I've mentioned in an earlier podcast, composing under a Stalin-den regime was a tricky balancing act. There was a body called the Department for Agitation and Propaganda, apparently better known as Agitaprop hardly a name which rolls off the tongue, and in 1947 they decreed that Kachatorian's music, together with that of other famous names like Prokofiev and Shostakovich, was not complying with a feel-good character required to keep the masses happy. They dubbed it a formalism, a kind of music which was too unapproachable to the man in the street. This is a fairly odd charge to lay at Kachatorian's door. He was passionate about the folk music of Armenia, and well known for extending his appeal not just at home, but abroad. In time, this denouncement was overturned, and he became possibly the greatest export from Armenia. Unless you're of a certain age, in which case you will doubtless challenge me, and fail in your endeavours, with another famous K whose origins can be traced there, namely Kim Kardashian. He was certainly their finest composer. His violin concerto is now firmly established in the repertoire, and listeners of another generation will remember the theme tuned of the television series The Unidian Line, taken from his ballet suite Spartacus. The massacre suite with its lively and uplifting umbipa umbipa opening walk may not be the most sophisticated thing ever written, but you can't deny that it's a perfect feel-good music. And goodness knows we all need that from time to time. Composed in 1941 for a play of the same name, Catchatorian extracted five parts to comprise a suite a few years later. You also don't often hear all five movements together. So here they are a waltz, a nocturne, a mazurka, a romance, and a gallop, a play by the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Naomi Yevi. In an earlier podcast, I played Ulensky's Aria before he faced a fatal duel with his friend Eugene Onjegin in Tchaikovsky's opera of the same name. Later in the opera, Onjegin makes his re-entry into society by going to a ball, only to see that the young girl Tatyana, whom he spurned haughtily several years before, is now married to a prince and therefore moving in the very higher circles. Her husband, Prince Gremin, proudly introduces Ojnegin to Tatiana, resulting in Ojnegin experiencing a kudofudo. In an instant, he realizes what an idiot he has been. To rub salt into a very sore wound, Prince Gremin sings an aria to Onyegin in which he tells of his love of Tatyana and how lucky he is to have found her in his boating. It is, of course, the very last thing the newly smitten O'Negin wants to hear. There's actually yet another lower level called an octavist, but very few people get down there. When I looked up Bernard Ladisch, the Polish singer, who died the day after his 98th birthday nearly a couple of years ago, he was described as a bass baritone. Well, there's nothing baritone about this, I can tell you. It's as about as bass as it can get. And the last note is quite something. With the downward notes of the orchestration in the background, conveying perhaps both the declining years of the prince and only Aggins' pain. Gremin doesn't make his first appearance until the final act. If you're going to have one number only in an opera, this is not a bad one to get. Prince Gremin's Arya is sung here by Bernard Laddish.

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Was rusty by school.

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Also, in an earlier podcast, we listened to Papagaino's Aria in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, in which he sings of his quest for a soulmate. A mission which is accomplished when he meets Papagaino. When they do find each other, they sing a duet in praise of the love between husband and wife. Papagino has been on the hunt for one and is ultimately successful. Unlike Beethoven, whose quest for a wife was left unfulfilled. In about 1801, Beethoven decided to adapt the very simple tune of Mozart's duet to a set of variations for cello and piano. Marta Arkovich on the piano and Mito Maitsky on the cello, two of the finest in their craft, bring out Beethoven's take on the underlying joys and sorrows inherent in any partnership. But it has an added poignancy, coming from the hand of someone who, not for want of trying, failed so miserably on that front.

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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.