Giuseppe Verdi was a passionate advocate of Italian national unity and indeed served for 4 years in the Italian parliament to help promote the cause of the Risorgimento, finally achieved in 1861. Whilst the chorus of the Hebrew slaves in Nabucco became its rallying song, the story of a brief 14th century entente between the two rival maritime powers of Venice and Genova as played out in Simon Boccanegra also provided a resonant context for his political vision. It was premiered in Venice in 1857. Here is the opening scene. The lush orchestral melody suggests the warming touch of the Ligurian wind over Genoa as we then overhear a conversation outside in a piazza about the forthcoming election of a new Doge.

Mournful of the loss of young life in the service of Queen Victoria, the pastoral poems of A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Houseman also provide startling prescience of what was to come 20 years later in the Great War. Soon after publication many composers were drawn to these poems. This is the last of the collection of Six by George Butterworth, astonishingly portrayed in this performance by Bryn Terfel alternating the whining questions of the ghost of the dead young man with the virile responses of his friend who survived.

A man and a woman walk through a dark forest on a moonlit night. She confesses a dark secret to her lover: she is carrying the child of another man. After her sadness and his reflection, he accepts and forgives her. ‘Everything gleams and looks radiant’. This is this last translucent passage of the revolutionary composer’s first universally applauded work.

Burt Bacharach should have appeared earlier in these selections. If I had my way, he would fill an entire podcast. “The moment I wake up, Before I put on my make-up, I say a little prayer for you”. We can all identify.

‘This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate, and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another: my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.’ Elgar wrote this passage by John Ruskin at the end of the manuscript score. Gerontius completes his spiritual journey and is settled into purgatory overseen by his guardian angel. The young Janet Baker can never have sounded more tender.

The Argentian pianist, Martha Argerich, leads her colleagues through this milonga medley.

The last scene. We would now be rehearsing this at The Grange, just a week or so before opening. Cenerentola’s days of sadly sitting by the fire are over. She remembers the misfortune of her earlier fate and is thankful that it’s all in the past. She forgives her family for being beastly to her. All present are happy that she is truly worthy of the throne. We salute the effervescent Teresa Berganza.

One of the most covered songs associated with the Count Basie Band. Here the fastest jazz fingers in the West are in the company of his legendary 50s Trio, Ray Brown on bass, Herb Ellis on guitar, and joined by none other than Buddy Rich on drums.

I hope Birmingham remains proud of having commissioned and staged the first performances in its Greek Revival Town Hall of this noble work. This aria consciously parodies the equivalent in Bach’s St John Passion, “Es ist vollbracht” (“It is fulfilled”), also with a ‘cello solo, but here with a baritone as the vocal soloist, in the instantly recognisable tones of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Who hasn’t covered this song? Here it is sung by its originator. As he says “A hymn to the cowardice of men”, with a real life context to make us men shudder with shame.

“On wings of song, I’ll carry you off, and we’ll go where the plains of the Ganges are calling, To the sweetest place I’ll know”. Perhaps we can imagine Jacques Brel’s’ lover singing this back to him in forgiveness.

The lily of the valley wins the struggle against the hoar frost and summons us with all the little flowers to dance. Pastoral joy in irrepressible duet.

And the theme continues, “You are the promised kiss of springtime”. I was lucky enough to share the stage with Sylvia on many occasions. Sadly I cannot claim any such association with her accompanist.

One of the interesting things about this recording is that it is conducted by a composer. This music has the drama and fun of an opera buffa, whilst also portraying passion, and violence and grief. In fact most of life is here.

Imagine sitting in the middle of a large circle of forty singers, all performing their own individual parts. This musical tour de force was composed around 1570. Queen Elizabeth 1 was 40 in 1573 ; the composer was challenged to compliment or rival his contemporary Italian Alessandro Striggio who wrote several motets for 40 voices; it was written especially for the dimensions of the balconied dining hall of the grand Tudor Palace of Nonsuch in Surrey. None or all of these could have been the occasion for its creation. It remains a shining jewel of the English Renaissance, which, as you can imagine, does not get performed very often.

“I have never put my hope in any other but in Thee, God of Israel who canst show both wrath and graciousness, and who absolves all the sins of man in suffering. Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, regard our humility”.