S2.E100. The importance of interpretation - Mozart Piano Sonata 10, Brahms Hungarian Dance 7, Talent to watch out for - Charlotte Du Cann and Sebastian Hill, Smetana Scherzo, RIP Dame Felicity Lott.

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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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I want to spend just a few moments on the perennial debate of interpretation. But I do think it's a help to demonstrate the importance of really listening in order to get the best out of your experience. A conductor's job, and indeed that of a service as well, is first and foremost to adhere to what's on the page. Most composers from Beethoven to Marler and beyond are really quite specific about the speed and accents in the music. If you look at any original Marler score, you'll find there are written instructions and demands all over the page. So you might think that that would leave little room for different sounds. And yet. Just a few episodes ago, we listened to the delightful second movement of Beethoven's Mighty Fifth Symphony. You may remember me saying that it's marked andante commoto, which means walking pace, but with a clear encouragement to keep up the notes are exactly the same. But listen to these two openings. The difference in interpretation of the instruction can be found as early as the third note and sets the tone for the whole move at Herbert von Karrian with a Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Carrianne's recordings of Beethoven's Night Symphonies undoubtedly set the benchmark. But it does show that however used we are to hearing one particular recording, there are always lovely surprises awaiting us. Exactly like noticing a line in a much loved poem which suddenly resonates or speaks to us in a completely different way. In an earlier episode, I think I may have mistakenly said that Mozart wrote twenty-four piano concertos. And of course he wrote twenty-seven. But he did write twenty-four piano sonatas. Amongst his most popular is his tenth in the Sonic of C major, which he wrote as it happens at the age of twenty seven. Now this is a charming piece full of Mozart's freshness, and when you hear these opening bars you might be reminded to respond, Oh yeah, I know that, nothing particularly special, but nice enough, certainly. And you'll just have to trust me when I say I could choose almost anybody else. Christian Zimmerman, Maria Joel Perez, Mitsuko Uschida, they would all sound more or less the same. So you're left thinking, well, that's what it sounds like. But then you hear this and you suddenly get something completely different. The introduction of another quality altogether. A playful aspect, a further light touch. As the right hand dances up the keyboard with noticeable but not exaggerated changes of volume. Two hands on the keyboard harmonically aligned, each with its own distinctive voice. And if you've not seen his performances online, I urge you to have a quick look. You'll be amazed at what you see. His body is almost motionless, its head fixed on the keyboard, and its hands exerting as much power and colour in the Mozart sonata as they do in 30,000 notes of Rutgman or Calicon Curto. There's no feeling gazing, no arching in the back to create some kind of agonizing delight, and no adoring gazes into a camera. Just a razor-like focus on the sound. So you've had a sample of how most people play it, and here you have Horowitz in the first moment of Mozart's sonata number ten, bringing out all sorts of things from the same notes. But it goes back just over sixty years ago to Carnegie Hall in 1965. It's all about one man's utterly charming understanding of the same note. In my opinion, no amount of improved acoustics in either a live performance or a studio has come close to replicating that. Brahms' twenty-one Hungarian dances were originally written for piano, some for four hands, later reduced to two, and many orchestrated the first turn by Brahms himself. It was a nice little urner for him, probably down to two simple reasons their brevity and their jolly. Both of those qualities are personified in number seven, played here by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abate. In recent months, I've attended a number of concerts locally, and two in particular have stood out. The first was a recital by two young sopranos, one of whom, Charlotte Ducan, has a voice which really made me sit up. She is currently studying for her master's at the Gilhall School of Music and Drama under Sarah Pring and was recently awarded Joint First Prize at the Dean of Charlington singing competition, though I asked her for her name after the concert I'd attended. In other words, before that prize. From where springs out a flame with a furious rap bar. Ah yeah, stand back. You are full of I warm the good. And what's more, all in the mind. The second verse is more of the same. Basically, you're in trouble here, and you better watch out. And a word of warning you might want to do the volume down a bit. If you find yourself in the Winchester area on Tuesday, the 9th of June, Charlotte will be singing songs and arias by Mozart, Puccini, and Strauss in the Lady Chapel of Winchester Cathedral. And I imagine the programme will be considerably less angry than that. The concert starts at 1.15 and will finish before 2 p.m. And if you do come along, I'll be there. So please come and say hi. The other voice I want to introduce you to belongs to Sebastian Hill. On this occasion, he was singing a bark and guitar to the choir. And the second he opened his mouth, I just went, whoa. And instantly thought that this was the voice of an evangelist in one of the Bark Passions. And it turns out he has, of course, done that. Sebastian has a voice and a stage presence, which makes for perfect storytelling. Again, his addiction is tolerated. I have no idea if the comparison has been made with Ian Bostridge. I'd be astonished if it hasn't. That's what it is. It's a voice which has the exact qualities to be found in the best golden honey. A bright colour and a really short sweetness. Somehow I don't think this young man needs much promotion from me, but it's just a total pleasure to bring him to your attention. And if you want to see guys concert, just go to Sebastianhill.com. This is another which you really need to look out for. Again, I will listen to two songs. Both about young love. The first by Schubert is sent in the poem Hide Not a Wordline by Goethe, about a confident young man approaching a rose, symbolizing an innocent lady boasting that he will kill her, and her response that she will break him in revenge. But I think the metaphor is pretty clear. And the second is by the French romantic composer, Holly Du Pac, called Priestess. He shall, he says, forget our sorrows, and from your eyes I shall drink so many kisses and so much love. And perhaps I shall be healed. Sebastian is joined by Will Harmer in the International TV Competition of 2025, all of which you can see online. And I would certainly encourage you to look at it because you'll not be disappointed.

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Und ich will es nicht leid. Rüstlein, Rüstlein, Rüßlein, Rot, Röslein auf dir Heiden und der wilde Knabe brach's Rüßlein auf der Heiden. Rüstlein wird sich und stach, half ihr doch kein Weihnacht muss es auf die Haine.

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Without being Smetana, as I think I've said once before, we would not have an obviously Czech identity in classical music, the battle for which it was taken up by his successor, Antonin Devorjack, and for which he now largely gets the credit. Smetana is known for his overture to the Barton Pride and Mavlast, my fatherland. What makes up that Czech identity, you might well ask? And it's always difficult to pin down this sort of thing. But probably a combination of national folk songs, and also, as you'll hear from his schetto from his only symphony, a distinct emphasis on the first beat of the big phrases. It then has a sudden shift in tone before bringing us back to the original. I think it's rather lovely. And it's played here by the Prague Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yashi Belakhak. Or Flot as we knew her, who died on Friday. I had caused to know her for a few years after she kindly agreed to host a masterclass in Aid of Rochester Cathedral with a handful of choristers from the Kent School choirs. This would then be followed by a 45-minute recital of her own. She was very reluctant to do the masterclass initially, not having done one before, but happily she did come round to the idea and then asked me what I would like her to sing. I said I hadn't given it a moment's thought, but suggested a couple of my favorites, which I'm glad to say she included, in the midst of an absolutely stunning skirmish from Hannibal right the way through the centuries, to Noel Coward. That final song was accompanied by a rather edgy choreography, the likes of which I'm sure have never been seen in Rochester Cathedral before, nor since. She was quite the most delightful, modest, and big-hearted person, and it's hard to believe that such a smiling light has been snuffed out. I will leave the experts to dwell on her enormous scope, but her fluency in French made her a champion for that repertoire like a few others. We would keep in touch periodically by email, always lengthy and chatty. I was going through them last night and came across one in which she was telling me about a jury she was sitting on with Dame Janet Baker and Dame Gwyneth Jones. Course, he had a question what a collective noun for a gathering of names might be, and asking for any ideas which she suggested and like dumping or a damnation, which I told her I thought was a bit harder, and put forward a term pantomime as a reflection of the enormous funding in that. And so I will leave the last words at the front in the song we've played ages ago, but I think it's a perfect way to finish, as you will see in the soft duration of the final note.

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Just a step beyond the ring.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Some day I wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are for me.