S2.E39 Jollity at both ends with something melty in the middle! Coleridge-Taylor Danse Negre, Mozart Piano Concerto 27, Saint Saens 'Ma coeur s'ouvre...', and 2 doses of Bach, father and son - Hunting Cantata on the piano, 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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Back in December, we listened to a Christmas piece by Samuel Coleridge Taylor. And when I came across the work which we're going to listen to today, I did some more digging to add to the little biographical facts I did know of him. For that, I must acknowledge an excellent article on the internet written by Phil Epperfade. I've long thought Coeridge Taylor's music is woefully underrated. And for the life of me, I can't understand why it doesn't get more of an airing. His brief life is a touching story of overcoming horrible adversity. Born in 1912 to a British mother, who gave him his name in honor of the poet Simon Taylor Coach, and a father from Sierra Leone, who was evicted there probably without knowing his wife was pregnant. But his extraordinary talent prevailed and broke through this particular startup Royal Academy of Music and web popularity, both here in the UK where he lived a short life incroyable and in the United States where that popularity continues much more than it does here. That's almost that way down to a mixed-rate composer writing music in a new rate spiritual tradition, which was bound to go down well with an African-American audience. It was held in such high esteem that he even had a one-to-one meeting with President Roosevelt, an almost unthinkable proposition for a man in his position. And he also became the first person in mixed-rate to conduct an orchestra made up entirely of white players. The person I instantly thought of when I listened to Darth Elgar, the music we're going to start with today, was Arthur Tullivan, acting Gilbert and I wondered whether they ever met. Well, get this. Edward Elgar, no less, who had not yet written his Enigma variations, described him as far and away the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men. And Sullivan, not only new and admired him, he beat his tutor at the Royal College. So when he attended the premiere of the work, which would steal his contemporary reputation, Hyowers wedding feast, Sullivan said to Coleridge Taylor, I'm always an ill man these days, my boy, but I'm coming to hear your music tonight, even though I have to be carried out. At a station in Croydon, Coleridge Taylor collapsed or exhaustion, brought on by his heavy workload ethic of composing and teaching. He was just 37 when he died. It high time the reputation he once enjoyed in his native country, and one which still holds in the United States is restored. And so the music is one of his four movements from his African sweet, originally composed for piano. With lots of African swingers with a charming love theme at its heart. And I think you'll notice a lot of an influence. So I'm quite chuffed that my hunch led to discovering he'd been co-rugating his tutor. And yet the piece has so much melancholy throughout that it's hard not to wonder whether he sensed the end was near. The slow movement, a passage of extraordinary simplicity, is played here by Friedrich Gulda with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abardo. And it's only fair to warn you that if you're feeling the slightest bit fragile, this might test the tear dance. In the second act, the two of them are in one of the prime locations to encourage intimacy. At this point, Samson has already told my, my, my, Delilah, that he loves her. So she's got that in the bag. But what she really wants is a secret to his strength. This well-known, perfectly lovely Arya is her attempt to bright it out of him. Mon cœur souvent à voir, literally translated as My Heart Opens itself to your voice, but more widely known as Sophie Awakes My Heart is sung here by Elina Garanza. The very first piece we listened to on Perfect Picture was a part of Bach's hunting cantata, now known as Where Sheep Basically Graz. It's so well known that you might reasonably think you don't really need to hear it again. But I suspect you might think differently once you've heard this arrangement for four hands on the piano. The brothers Arta and Lucas Yussen allow each part to sing independently, with no danger of overpowering the other. Of all his children, Bach's son, Carl Philippe Emmanuel, was by far the most gifted. So much so, and hard to believe now, that by the end of the 18th century, his father was all but forgotten. The only mention of Bach was Karl Philippe Emanuel Bach. And when Mozart said that he is the father, we are the children, he wasn't referring to Johann Sebastian, but his son. It's not hard to see why. The Baroque period in music was never going to just switch off and turn into the classical one overnight. And the man inhabits that transition phase perfectly. A hybrid of baroquical sounds clumsy. And if you do it the other way around and take the first half of classical and the last half of Baroque, you'll come up with something which would never get past the census. A while back, we played the first movement of his A major cello concerto. So here is the vibrant Allegro of the last movement. The sun is no chip of his old man's block. This has an urgency and momentum on his own. It's played here by Petros Galca with Cafe Simon, directed by Pablo Valeti.

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