S2.E52. Pique Dame Overture, according to Von Suppe, E lucevan le Stelle from Tosca, and some real charm with Mozart Piano Concerto No.9

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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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The two great interests in my life have always been music of almost any kind, although I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to jazz, and sport. I've never understood how it's possible not to have an interest in one of those. And at this time of year, they are quite perfectly aligned, enabling me to indulge in huge helpings of both. The US Golf Open recently, the Football Euros, the Cricket T20 World Cup, and coming up, Wimbledon, Test Cricket, and our own Open. All of them on the horizon. And in just a few weeks' time, the BBC Proms starts its annual season of concerts. So it's a very full sort of pleasure, and I'm feeling like a kid in a candy shop. In that spirit, I think we should listen to another of Franz von Soupe's overtures, one perhaps played slightly less often, namely his 1864 operetta La Pique d'Anne, The Queen of Spades, based on the tale by Alexander Pushkin. To be honest, I think it's a rather loose interpretation, because in Von Soupe's version, everyone lands up living happily ever after, which is a very far cry from Tchaikovsky's understanding of it, as I outlined in episode six, if you'd like a brief summary of the plot. But the outcome could not be more tragic. Something, as the saying goes, got lost in translation along the way. Or perhaps their librettists picked up the wrong text. I've no idea, and it doesn't awfully matter for us. Fon Super's overture does have some ominous hints from the start, but it's not long before his trademark Joie de Vivre takes over. Symbols and all. George Schulte conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra. Next week, I'm very fortunate to be going to Tosca. A lot of opera diehards turned their noses up at this one, described by one critic at its premier as a shabby little chocker. But bar humbug to the lot of them, I say. It's one of the perfect operas for the opera newbie, filled with passion, jealousy, murder, and revenge, all clothed in Puccini's glorious music. Each of the three acts has at least one big musical moment. And since we've already listened to Vicidate from Act 2, let's go forward to Act III of Cavalodotti's Last Lament on the night before he's due to be executed by a firing squad. In Elucci van le Stelle, and the stars were shining, Cavalardotti mourns the life of which he's to be deprived with his beloved Tosca. Closing with the words My dream of love is now dispelled forever. I lived on caring and now I die despairing. Alas I die despairing. And never was life so dear to me. No, never so dear. No, never. It's an aria with a broad range, calling on the skills of a spinto tenor. Spinto is Italian for push, which in simple terms means that the singer must be capable of anything thrown at him or her, thereby opening up a huge variety of roles. If you've not yet heard Freddy de Tommaso live, you're in for a treat. He's a young man with a huge voice and is a highly talented actor as well. In the meantime, feast your ears on these few minutes with a Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Paolo Adivabini. Supposedly after an unknown person to whom it was meant to be dedicated. Since that young person turned out to be a lady, it seems a bit odd that it wasn't renamed, but the original has stuck. The piece marked a turning point in his concerto writing, assuming a new maturity in his composition skills. We're going to finish today by listening to the second and final movements the Andantino and the Rondo Presto. I don't think there's much I can say about the music. It's just completely gorgeous as you'd expect from Mozart. But the playing is something very special. Maria Joie Pierre has an affinity with Mozart which is quite hard to define. But at the heart of her playing is a purity, a sort of honesty almost, which you just don't hear very often. To have seen her perform which I sadly never did would surely have been the same as watching Vladimir Horovitz. There's nothing chewy, nothing flamboyant, it's only about the music. In this live performance with a Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kazuki Yamada, Piddles slips in some of her own improvisations in each of the movements. But there's no look at me, aren't I clever about them? They're never intrusive, just fitting and natural. The result, I think, brings out the charm in Mozart, like very few others.

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