54. From Derilium to Optimism, via a Joyful Leap and Romance.

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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. A 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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Not long ago, we listened to The Arabesque by Robert Schumann, a piece with a charming melody at its heart, and a mood you would not associate with its tormented composer. So here, by contrast, is another piano composition by Schumann which is much more in line with his troubled character, and one which even he referred to as the hardest piece ever written. It's almost delirious. There's a central melody in here for sure, but is it ever thrown off course by the introduction of other melodies? What's known in music as a counterpoint? There are also two other devices exploited here: a chromatism, which in simple terms means a sudden jolt or deviation away from the main key, and which is the term used for varied rhythms. Both of these you will hear in abundance, and it appears you will need, as a friend of mine recently put it, four arms of steel to get through it. I'm not going to spoil the ending of it, but it is a touch of wholly unexpected genius, which the plane of Marta Agarich delivers quite beautifully. But that unpredictable finish is at a touch of closely dramatic, especially in the right hand. In the context of music, the name Philip Hazeltine is unlikely to ring a bell to many. But his pseudonym of Peter Warlock might be more familiar. Unfortunately, his talent and prolific outlook was somewhat overshadowed by a rather scandalous lifestyle, which in the end had the effect of casting his music into oblivion until the latter half of the last century. But the conductor confidence Lambert held him as one of the greatest songwriters ever, and there could be little doubt of his influence on English music. Despite moving in circles which ought to have given him great confidence as dealers as a bar Thomas Beachon, D. H. Lawrence, WBH, and more, he seems to have been somebody who has played without self-doubt all his life. I can't see that he was ever particularly happy, whether at school, university, or adult life. It's a strange and sad because his music was well received in his own lifetime. And one of his most popular works is The Capriol Sweden, which received his first performance in the bombs of 1929, with Warlock making his only public conducting appearance. It was actually written four years after the second one, but published a year before it, which is why it's now known as number one. There's nothing much to say about this except to draw attention to its rather daunting opening for the photoist. The violinist is on his or her own from the opening notes and expected to play two notes at the same time in a device called double stopping, which we've spoken about before. In the studio, you have the luxury of trying it several times if you need to, but no such luxury is available to you on a live performance. So it's a hardened amount of stuff, even for the best, like this one. And Sophie Mutter with the NDR Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barrendor. So just enjoy it for what it is. A few moments of complete charm. The great thing about having your own podcast is that no one tells me what to play. You might not like all of it, I don't expect you to, but obviously I do hope that you're stumbling across things for the first time, or even perhaps hearing things in a different way. Let's finish on something a little alternative, but just about in the brief all the same. That so much of modern music has its roots in classical music is nothing revolutionary. But over the years, many leading opera singers have been equally at home in modern music. And Sophie von Otter, for example, whom we heard sing a Stubert song a while ago, paired up with huge success with Elvis Costello in their album For the Stars 20 Years Ago. Here's an example of a very well-known song by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. Who, I hear you say? When I tell you it was written for the film The Wizard of Oz, you will not need the title. This is a lovely version sung by one of the UK's top sopranos, Felicity Lott. She's accompanied by Isabel Moretti on the harp. In the very unlikely event that you don't know the title, you'll hear the words clearly enough in the music.

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Just a step beyond the time.

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