S2.E67 A Schubert Serenade, Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto, Schubert 1st Symphony Finale.,

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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 31st of January 1797 saw the arrival of possibly the greatest melodist of all time, Franz Schubert. And it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to dedicate the entire podcast this week to his music. But even as I say this, I can hear a number of you thinking, Yes, Nick, I know he's your favourite composer, but on balance I prefer a mixture, because one of the reasons I dip in occasionally is that I don't know what I'm going to get. And fair enough. So I'll curb my enthusiasm and start this week with a brief perfectly lovely and gentle tune. Which has also been transcribed of a different instrument. And we've recently commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. So it seems entirely fitting to bring the Israeli-born virtuoso violinist Perlman into this as well. If you've seen the Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List, Perlman is the violinist who plays John Williams's moving melody. So we can combine the two commemorations the anniversary of Schubert's birth with that of Holocaust Remembrance Day only a few days previously by listening to Perlman's playing of Schubert's Charming Serenade with Rohan de Silva on the piano. He's well known for his sunny outlook and sense of humour. So I can't resist sharing this little anecdote with you. A staccato is the instruction which requires a player to deliver his notes very distinctly separated from the one immediately before it and the one immediately following. Like this, for example. And here is Itza Perlman with a story on one way to guarantee this perfection. He's in the middle of a live masterclass where his student has been struggling a little with a staccato. When Perlman decides to interject, I'll let him take it up from there.

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Uh-huh. And then what you do? Hope for the best. Hope for the best, yeah. No, there's a there's a story. I never forget that uh uh Joseph Gingold told me once that he he did a concerto and uh there was supposed to be a lot of staccato there. And uh and he didn't have a good staccato, and uh, so he died. Eugene Isa was at the concert, and his dye was a huge, tall fellow, and uh quite frightened to uh to a violinist who's starting and uh or or any colleague of his because he was such a giant, and he came backstage and he says, What's with the staccato? Where was the staccato? No staccato. So he says, Well, he says, I'm sorry, Mr. Isaiah, but I don't have a staccato. He says, I'll give you a staccato. Don't worry, he says, just put the violin under the chimney. But he said, Now put the bow on the string. He says, he got so nervous, he says he hasn't lost the thing.

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And while on the subject of virtuoses who are happy to share their talents with others, Clara Vieek was probably without peer in the 19th century. Actually, it would be quite hard to overstate her gifts because she combined over sixty years of concert giving with being married to the more well-known Robert Schumann, bearing him eight children and being the main breadwinner of the household. Nowadays we'd probably call her a housewife and all round a superstar. She also had to contend with personal tragedies along the way, for not only did her husband predecease her, but four of their children as well, with yet another being consigned to an institution for almost all his life. Clara had already composed her piano concerto at the age of fourteen and performed it for the first time two years later, with none other than Felix Mendelson conducting. The world of music owes her an enormous debt. It's impossible to imagine that her husband could have arrived the way he did without her support. And my computer said the same, with a combined help of Johanna's Brahma, who struggled to get any recognition at all. She didn't leave a huge amount behind because a lot of it found its way to the fireplace or the rubbish on the colour being so much of perfectionist. A while back we listened to her piano trio, a piece of like a piano concerto, which he composed before and the same thing as a husband would do when he got around to writing his own. So I think we should listen to the piano concerning at all. Especially as it actually was 21 minutes. Although it's in a traditional free movement, a fast hello format. It runs uninterrupted. It makes huge technical demands of its own. The orchestration may not be the most sophisticated, but then I'm not sure about it. Because it's really all about the piano. It's a piece of it which is all of a balance and delicious things from the start. That's making it a prime example of a romantic period. It really is a staggering achievement for a fourteen-year-old. Isata Kenna Mason is the soloist here with a royal liverboard orchestra conducted by Holly Matherson. Clara Schumann was just sixteen when she gave the first performance of that. And Schubert was just sixteen when you composed it to First Symphony. Ten years ago.

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That's it for this week. Nick will be back again soon. Please rate and comment on any of the previous episodes, and if you like what you hear, take a moment to press the follow button, as it helps to spread the word.