S2.E62. From Stanley Trumpet Voluntary to Strauss's 2nd Horn Concerto via Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu and a Sibelius Scherzo.

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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 season of Advent is well and truly underway. And there's already plenty of Christmas music to fill in the airways. Which is why I'm going to avoid the temptation to go down that route here just for the moment. But we can still be upbeat in anticipation. John Stanley was British born and bred from the early to late 18th century. And therefore a contemporary anticipated George African Candle. He was a supremely talented organist and composer for that instrument. Despite the fact that he paid in the fall of age of two, which caused him to be almost completely blind. Blindness was an affection which would later counterplay Candle as well. It didn't stop him from continuing to play and compose. It takes a special talent to learn a piece from just hearing it and then being able to reproduce it and just reading it from the page. But that was precisely the nature of Stanley's genius. He was only a boy when his extraordinary skills were being called upon by a number of top London churches. Of his numerous organ volunteers, his one for organ and trumpet. Is by far the most famous and familiar. And it's not hard to see why with this joyful march-like tune. So here it is, played by Douglas Bush on the Trumpet and David Brown on the organ. And here's another one. Chopin's fantasy impromptu, one of those works which he did not want to be published after his death. There may be personal or compositional reasons for this, but we have to be thankful that the instruction was overlooked. For it is surely one of the loveliest compositions of the piano. Stormy and restless at its opening before giving way to a heart-melting tenderness which in turn comes back to the opening torment. But nevertheless closes slightly mysteriously. It sounds a bit like an anguished mind, which doesn't know which way to turn. Sibelius' lifespan of 91 years defied the normal of the day. If, as he was, you weren't lucky enough to be born into that cruelly cold climate in 1865. You weren't expected to get past your mid-30s. I have no idea what his secret was, but a diet of cigars and vodka doesn't seem to have done him any harm. That is not, of course, any kind of recommendation. Just an observation. His symphonic writing had a lasting effect on British music, perhaps more so than anywhere else. Especially the likes of Warren Williams and Walton. The reception of his music was mixed, which was hardly surprising. Given the array of new forms of text. So he was never going to please everyone. And if you're familiar with the old adage that you should take no notice of what the critics say, no one ever put up a statue to a critic. Well, it was Sebaeus who coined that first. Here is the rather moody, even angry third movement from its first symphony. The scared so played by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomsted. You might remember that his horn playing dad had declined to be the soloist for the first one after taking the view that he would be putting himself in some danger. So demanding was the part. But apparently it was written in his father's memory. If you've not heard it before, it is a completely different approach to say Mozart where the orchestra is little more than gentle backing. It's in the traditional fast, slow, fast format. But the chance is at the peak of its powers now. So the orchestration is first rate, both reflective and forward-looking. It's not a concerto which has obvious dialogue between instrument and other players. The horn is very much a principle among the rest. Woodwind and strings feature party while skills of the highest order are required of the further. The slow movement does provide some respite in a gorgeous passage. But the demands on virtuosity during the last movement mean that you have to be right at the top of your game to pull it off successfully. Dennis Brain was unquestionably one of the finest practitioners with this instrument until his untimely death in a car crash and made this recording with a Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Zavalisch, himself one of the great Strauss interpreters. So it's as near as good a combination as you could hope to find.

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