75. Raw intimate talent.

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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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I want to do something this week which I've only done once or twice before, but it would not do justice to the piece I want to share with you if we listen to just one movement. And I don't mind betting that it will be a new piece for most of you, perhaps even the experts at the end of the day. I'm going to give an ever so slightly long introduction because I don't want to interrupt it once it starts. Well, I started to listen to classical music in my teens, never letting go of all the other good stuff, of course, so I can still hold my own reasonably well on beat the intro. All I wanted to listen to were the big pieces of symphonies, concertos, and then eventually opera. The smaller scale of chamber music passed me by completely, apart from things like Beethoven and Mozart Panasonators, but that was only because I was trying my best to get to grips with some of them myself. In Homer Ulvid's book titled Chamber Music, he writes that chamber music is at once one of the most enjoyable and the most dignified of literature. The musical amateur often makes it his hobby and considers it the mainspring of his musical existence. The professional musician turns to it for relaxation and for a kind of pleasure that no other field offers. Back in the 18th and early 19th century, women composers and performers were a rare thing. Mozart's elder sister, Maria Anna, was every bit as talented on the keyboard as her younger brother Wolfgang, and their pushy father Leopold would take them everywhere on tour. But once she became of marriageable age, that was it. Much the same can be said for Fanny Mendelssohn, the sister of Felix, so much so that many of her works were even published under his name. Put on the spot, I could probably name half a dozen female composers of any note that long ago. But happily a lot has changed over the years, and female representation, not only in the composer field, but also those of soloists, orchestras and conductors, has changed noticeably. The big beats of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic still lag a little, with between 10 and 15 percent of their orchestras being made up of a women. But in my favourite orchestra in the UK, the London Philharmonic, female representation is over 30 percent. And only recently did it appoint a woman as a co-leader. Anyway, surely the most famous of all female composers was Clara Viecker, who was giving public performances from the age of nine and would become the wife of Robert Schumann. She was born some nine years earlier than him in 1819. Only 20 works of hers were published, but there isn't a single dove to be found, probably because she was such a perfectionist, which meant that much of it was discarded and never saw the light of day. But she was also an extremely gifted pianist, widely lauded as one of the finest of the day. And it was actually by listening to her playing that Robert decided to dedicate his life to music. When he died in an asylum at her 46, her reputation was so well established that she continued to perform in public until her 70s. Having eight children might have been something of a catalyst for that. But let's be under no doubt about her legacy. Before her, the recital for which you had to pay to attend did not exist. That was her initiative. And she was also the first to play a piano concerto from memory. Nowadays, you very rarely see anything different. But it wasn't ever that. So today we're going to listen to Clara Schumann's piano trio for piano, violin, and cello, written while her husband was very ill, and soon after she had suffered a miscarriage. If you're doing something else at the moment, you either need to stop or make a note of where my ramblings finish. Because this is music which needs to be listened to with attentive ears in order to appreciate its supreme mastery. I'll just give you the very briefest outline of its structure before we listen to it. It's in four movements, the first an allegro moderato, waste a little time in getting underway and demonstrates a highly sophisticated understanding of how to give each instrument its own voice, as well as blending with the others. It's followed by a spaghetti with a very light-hearted opening theme, which has a sort of writ feel about it, before going into a darker phase and returning to the original. The andante, which follows in the third movement, is a perfectly gorgeous tune in the minor key, which unusually turns into the major in the middle for its slightly foreboding career. But when that tune returns, this time announced by the cello, oh my goodness, what a moment. It gets me every time. And the finale is a spirited Allegro once more displaying extraordinary certification between just three and seven years. Apart from their eight children, her husband, who by the way had to go to court in order to overrule his father-in-law's determination that they should not be married, had much to thank her for. Stylistically, they are very similar. So sit back and immerse yourself in just under half an hour of intimacy and pure loveliness. Clara Schumann's piano trio is played here by the Atos trio.

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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.