S2.E91.This Year's Christmas Stocking!

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Transcript

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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 Christmas presents the podcast of music with a particular problem. Much of the music I want to share with you is based on the Christmas story, to which I know many of you will not subscribe. But rather like Easter, I've never believed that our individual attitudes will get in the way of enjoying some really wonderful compositions. I also draw attention to episodes of Christmas Park. Easily found by scrolling back to this time of year beginning in 2021. We'll find an array of well-known and much-loved pictures. As I've already said once in the past, in the end, everything has to start with Barker. And although we've listened to the opening of its Christmas oratorio before, there really is no better way to welcome the season than with its jubilant affirmation prologue. Alpha Rise. From its Christmas oratorio of 1734. Amazing that something nearly 300 years old still manages to arouse so much hope and jubilation. The Amsterdam Baroque choir and orchestra are conducted by Thomas Kruppman. But here's something which doesn't get an outing very often. List Christmas tree, a collection of 12 miniatures written for four hands on the piano. List was Hungarian. And as a son of a Hungarian mother, we should be grateful that he didn't title these in his native language. The quote why he had to use three different languages for this group of four is beyond me. Or Carillan, if you're in the UK, or Carillon, if you're in France, sounding like bells, Lumalid, which is a lullaby, and finally altus or provincialishes Weinachlieb, an old Provençal Christmas song played here by Pinocchio Giomana and Alessandro Luchetti. And that's more than enough testing of my questionable pronunciation for just one introduction. There's simply two of my favourite carols, which are never sung by the congregation, just by the choir. Oh holy night has such a lovely melody and leaves you in suspense, waiting for that final top note before the organ peaks and subsides almost in an instant. And tomorrow shall be my dancing day as its highly original rhythm on the organ in between each verse. Adding an ever so slightly contrasting mood to the main theme. Oh Holy Night is sung here by the choir of King's College, Cambridge under the direction of Stephen Clebury and a really rousing version of Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day by the St. Paul's Choir School under the direction of James Kennedy. If Bach's Christmas oratorio can be said to embody the sacred element of the season, though secular piece, surely, can be quite so synonymous with Christmas at Tchaikotsky's Nut Crack a Ballet. Before composing all the music for the Twelfth Ballet, Chaikotsky had written a six-part suite, whose popularity was the catalyst for the full-blown work. That, ironically, not been quite so popular at the outset. But which has since become one of the most accessible and beloved of all ballets. So let's finish this Christmas offering with a full suite played by the Bernard Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mr. Slav Rostropovich, starting with a mini overture, followed by a march, a dance of the Sugar Plan Ferry, a Russian dancer, an Arabian dancer, a Chinese dancer, a Greek flute, and finally the water of the flower. It just remains for me to send you my audio thanks for tuning in wherever you may be. And I continue to be astonished at some of the locations. I really love hearing from you, so please do get in touch with any comments. Yes, I know everybody says that on our podcast, but the pleasure I get from receiving and answer your rest is it's hard to overstate. And wherever you are, be you with family or on your own, I wish you peace. And however troubled our world may look right now, there's always something to cherish. Most often in small daily things. Observing and taking them in often goes a long way to making us feel a lot better. Perfect pitch will return in January. So until then, farewell.