S2.E58. More von Suppe! Beethoven Triple Concerto; Strauss Befreit; Gershwin Piano Concerto.

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.

One of the most fundamental prerequisites for hosting your own podcast is to be able to speak. And the reason I've been off air recently is that I picked up a dose of acute laryngitis, reducing my voice to a barely audible whisper. I don't like being out of touch. But forgive me if I keep my input down this week. Over the last month or two, we've listened to a couple of France Von Sopo's overtures. But to play them without offering up arguably his most famous would be like discussing Beethoven's symphonies without even mentioning his own. The overture of which I speak is the one called Poet and Peasant. It has Von Sopo's sweeping romantic melodies with some exuberant moments on the brass. But at the beginning, there's this lovely melody played by a solo cello. Perhaps it's not surprising that it gets given proper attention in this recording by the Halle Orchestra, whose conductor for many years was John Barberoli, and who started his musical career as a channel. Barbie Rolley was a details man, and the crispness and clarity makes that as fresh as any recording I've heard since. Beethoven wrote plenty of music involving the cello, but oddly no concerto for it on its own. He did, however, combine it with the violin and piano to make up what is simply called the triple concerto. It was a new combination of instruments and one which has not been repeated by anybody since. Beethoven is typically doing something rather different here, effectively taking the chamber music setup of a piano trio and giving it at the backing of an orchestra. I think it's a fabulous piece, and it doesn't get paid anything light enough. Here's the rondo finale in a style of Apolonese, played by three greats Yo Yo Ma on cello and Sophie Murta on the violin, and Daniel Baronboy on the piano, backed by the West East and Divan Orchestra. One of Richard Strass's most popular songs, Bith Heit, meaning freed or liberated, was originally written for the piano, and which he later orchestrated, as indeed he did with a number of others. Norman Del Mar wrote of how the title word befight derives from the basic sentiment of the poem, an ultimate devotion which has freed a loving pair from suffering. And then how the serenity of the music reflects the immortal quality of that love.