Episode 7. Levity, Love, Light.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

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.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

We're going to open today appropriately with an overture. In the mid-19th century, Vienna and the Austrian Empire generally was in a state of serious decline after years of wars with its neighbours. Vienna was in desperate need of cheering up. I think we can all relate to that from time to time, and they were lucky that a young man called Johann Strauss could step up to the mark. A prime example, if you like, of Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man. The Waltz King, as he came to be known, was the son of another light composer Johann, whose preferred career choice for the young man was banking. It wasn't long before the younger overtook the success of the father. The Blue Danu Waltz was a major factor in that. But so too was the enormous success of Strauss' operetta Defleidermas, first performed in 1874 and now one of the most popular of light comic operas. It's the first opera my European mother took me to, and another ideal choice for the opera Virgin. I'm not going to bother you with a plot here, because it's quite convoluted, and anyway, the Viennese audiences weren't too bothered about it either. They just wanted good tunes. The overture, which we're going to hear now, fills the brief, but a few more so in my opinion than this recording. I defy you to find a more spirited and lively performance than this, all down to the mastery of one of the greatest conductors, Carlos Kleiber. Lots of freshness and some frankly crazy changes of tempo add up to seven minutes of smiley, uplifting music. It's so fast it's a wonder that the Bavarian State Orchestra can keep up with him, and yet what amazing clarity from start to finish. Until the days of Mozart, mid to late 18th century, such roles were sung by men who'd undergone the op and become a castrato. Their necessity came about as a result of women not being permitted to sing in church choirs. The demands of church music required their range, but not their attendance. It was a dangerous procedure, and your chances of survival were probably no more than fifty-fifty. But for many poor families, the risk was worth it. The best castrati were the stars of their day, and would earn vast sums of money. The effect was to preserve the prepuberty voice and enable it to reach dizzy heights. And here's the bit which might make you wince without an anesthetic. Bologna was a renowned centre. You might even equate the numbers of outlets with modern day tattoo parlours. Don't worry, I haven't lost the plot. All this is necessary background for what we're about to listen to, because many often wonder why male parts are sometimes sung by women. The simple answer is that the church finally outlawed the very procedure it had initiated. Women and girls were allowed to join church choirs, and so the need for the castrato singer was no longer. There are many famous trouser roles in opera, and the youthful Calabino in Mozart's marriage with Figaro is one of the most well known. It's a bit of an aria that the parties are trouserole because the one thing Carabino finds hardest is keeping his own. The American Frederica von Stader had a glittering career on stage and in the recording studio, and was one of the best Calobinos there ever was. These few minutes amount to a breathless expression of youthful joy, innocence, naivety, and despair. Non so pure cosa son cosa faccio. I don't know what I am, what I'm doing. Carabino can only think of love all day long, and when he's on his own and can't express it to anyone else, he talks about it to himself. It's all there in these couple of minutes. But it's not as if his music isn't played widely enough anyway. The Fifth Symphony, with its opening five bars now of the most iconic notes in all music history, was composed more or less at the same time as a pastoral and performed for the first time at the same concert, along with his fourth piano concerto and several other works. In fact, the entire concert was made up of Beethoven pieces alone and took place in Vienna on a freezing night in December 1808. It can be easy to overlook little details like this. With all our modern creature comforts, we sometimes forget that sound for heating was not widely used until nearly 150 years later. It wasn't very well attended. I think it may have clashed with something more instantly appealing, and understandably its audience was rather restless having to sit through over four hours of music. So the Fifth Symphony did not get off to an auspicious start. Incidentally, only fifty years later, anybody sitting through Richard Wagner's opera Die Meitersinger von Nuremberg would have had to wait four and a half hours before heading home. More words have been written and said about this piece for me to make any discernible and original input. So I'll just offer a couple of observations for you to look out for. Today we're going to listen to the third and fourth movements of the symphony. The first thing to mention is that Beethoven was not done with those four iconic notes at the beginning of the piece, because here they are again, repeated with gusto in the third movement of the schedule. Instead of the fourth note being long, as in da da da, they get mostly equal emphasis as in da da da da da da da da. And then, just as it quarters down with some plucking on the violins, you get 30 seconds of probably the most exciting transition from a minor to a major key in all music, taking you straight into the triumphant final movement, the Allegro. It's as if someone has their hand on the curtain cord and then just yanks it to allow the light to pour in. The light overcomes the darkness. Despair is followed by hope. And Beethoven can't seem to let go of his enthusiasm. You'll notice how there's a very clear point at which the piece can come to an end, but he just has to go round the block once more. You may think you know this piece, and of course you do, but maybe you'll listen to it in a different way now. The third and fourth movements of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony are played here by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carriano.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

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.