S2,E14. Two different sides pf Brahms - humour and tenderness. Academic Festival Overture, Intermezzo 1. And the freshness of CPE Bach, Cello Concerto.

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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 think it's time we listened to some Brahms, and something more on the light-hearted side. Back in April, we heard his tragic overture, composed in 1880, and I thought at the time that we'd already listened to the other overture written in the same year. So I was pleased to look back and see that we haven't. The story goes that Brahms was awarded an honorary doctorate at Breslau University. He hadn't actually wanted to attend the sermon itself, so penned off a letter of thanks, assuming that was the end of the matter. A professor at the other end had somewhat different expectations and wrote back, asking Brahms to write them a symphony. That was a rather ambitious request. Considering it had taken Brahms over 20 years to write his first symphony, and he'd only just completed his second. But he did oblige with an offering in his academic overture, which was enough to persuade him to attend the ceremony and conduct his first performance. The piece may not have been quite what was expected by his host, but the students loved it. The whole composition is made up with reference to four student songs and culminates in a famous drinking melody, the exact origin of which is unknown, having a bit of a dig at the seriousness of university life in the words of Gaudiamus Igitor. So let us now rejoice. We're not quite sure where it's going at the start. It's played here by the Royal Conservative Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Heidegg. I don't want to leave Brahms just yet. His detractors complain of his solemn and heavy orchestration, but that last piece proves otherwise. And this perfectly delightful intermezzo for piano, one of three composed twelve years later, shows the lovely tenderness which was also in his armory. This is dreamy sit down and shut your eyes stuff. Played by one of the great Brahms interpreters, the late Radu Lupu. The term intermezzo, the title of that last piece, means music connecting one part of a work to another. For example, in an opera. But it's also a good description for the brief period in the mid-18th century, when music was shifting from the Baroque as championed by the likes of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and so on, to the classical period of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It's hard to believe now. But by the late 18th century, the work of Bach had fallen out of fashion completely and was to remain like that until Mendelssohn gave it a revival some 30 or 40 years later. Carl Philippe Emmanuel Bach was the most talented of the ten surviving children. Out of the twenty, his dad had fathered with the help of two wives. Living between 1714 and 1788 means that he coloured part of all the names I've just mentioned. Following in his father's footsteps was always going to be a tough act, but by the end of the 18th century, his music act came to be far more popular. His style was inevitably influenced by Joan Tebastian, but it's a new freedom and freshness, which has an impact on Mozart. We are the children. The outer movements are so exuberant and uplifting that on first hearing it, I actually thought the second movement was a little out of place in solemnity. But in the right hand, as in this case Christoph Croir with the Baroque ensemble Limous, it is deeply expressive. So if you've not heard it before, be patient, especially as you will be rewarded with a flourishing finale.

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