83. Love, Passion, Romance, and Charm. Wagner Lohengrin, Verdi Ballo, Dvorak Serenade, Korngold Straussiana.

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Welcome back to Perfect Pitch with Nick Healy Hutchinson and his fresh approach to the world of classical music. Whether you're an expert or a beginner, old or young, Perfect Pitch has something for everyone.

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You will know by now that as a human being, Richard Wagner had no redeeming features whatsoever. He was a CAD and a bounder of the first order, committing every vice known to man. His operas are too long for many, but few would deny his genius for orchestration. This little burst of joy is a good way to kick things off today. The prelude to Act III of Lone Grin is a passage which portrays the jubilance and merriment of the wedding party between Elsa and her knight before it all goes horribly wrong. Brass, cymbals, triangles, strings of woodwind, it's all there. So cast your prejudices aside for a few minutes and lap up these moments with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abade. He and Wagner were born in the same year, 1813, but the Italian was quite living by nearly 20 years. The duet here is sung by Pavarotti and Margaret Price with a new Philomena Orchestra conducted by George Shelty. After a minute or two, he quietly utters the word Tama and his ecstatic response expresses perfectly the way we all feel on being told this for the first time. And no wonder Verdi was proud of it. This is high octane stuff, and it's a reminder of two absolutely extraordinary voices. Here are a few very light-hearted minutes to finish today. The kind of music which would have delighted my mother, if not my Wagner and leaning father. We've listened to some of the music of the Austrian composer Eric Korngold in the past. Korngold was forced into exile in the United States in 1938 as a direct result of Nazi oppression, where he was to carve out a highly successful career in film music. Some critics were quick to accuse him of selling out to Hollywood. But the conductor and composer Andre Previn, himself an accomplished old score composer, maintained that his style did not change a great deal when he got there. It wasn't as if, as Previn put it, that Corn Girl began to sound like Hollywood, much more that everyone began to copy him. And why not? He was, after all, an Oscar winner. But he also had a great love for Johann Strass, Jr., and it's no small claim to make that Corngirl played some part in a Strass revival. His oddly titled piece, Straussiana, can be seen as both a tribute to the Walter King as well as a nostalgic nod to his homeland of Vienna. Strasiana is played here by the London Symphonia conducted by John Wilson.

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