This is asking for trouble. The full title of this opera is “The Revenge of the Bat”. Using the argument that humour is often the best way to get out of a tricky situation, I hope that the spirit of this exhilarating overture to a rather silly comic opera dissipates any possible offence.

Essentially this is a fiendishly difficult piano exercise to ‘expand your hand and develop your arpeggios to sound like a violin’s’ (to quote the composer). One of my favourite pianists, Murray Perahia, dares to make it sound both lyrical and (sort of) easy. And majestic.

Queen Anne had this sung to her on her birthday. Let us hope she paid some attention to this magisterial countertenor and trumpet duet. You may recognize this from a recent Royal wedding, sung by a high soprano. Countertenor was the original voice.

In sleep made sweeter by a vision of you, I dreamed of happiness.. I harbour a gentle thought that many of you might have sung this song, or at least imagined doing so. If not, there’s still time - lots of it. Have a go.

Music needs to sound spontaneous, even if it’s taken hours to get performable. I feel that both the actual notes of Beethoven and this performance conducted by Carlos Kleiber pass this test. It was written for a charity concert in Vienna for wounded Austrian soldiers on the losing side against Napoleon, who had been the youthful composer’s hero.

Pamina hears Tamino’s flute and rushes to find him. When he says nothing to her (vowed to silence) she thinks that their love has ended. I am sure we can all relate.

A dying father says good-bye to his daughter. “Don’t cry, my daughter!”. This tear-jerking aria will be heard at The Grange in a few years.

In between these elegiac songs, a joyous rumbustuous conversation between all the musical participants, mostly agreeing with each other but occasionally offering a different viewpoint.

I once listened to this over and over again while a violent storm was raging outside in a house overlooking the sea on the coast of Fife, salt spray lashing against the window panes. I later discovered it was Simon’s coded farewell to Garfunkel.

Very occasionally, a true masterpiece gets rescued from obscurity with stealth and persistance. This was never performed in the composer’s lifetime and first saw the light of day in performance less than 40 years ago. This music accompanies the entrance of the Muse Polyhymnia. It is ineffably touching.

Some of you may currently sympathize with the sense of desperation in this intimate meditation, couched in the powerful physical language of love and war, and set to startingly dramatic and vivid music by John Adams.

Apologies for a brutal segue. This version of the Ellington classic has deliciously louche ‘bluesy’ vocals by Betty Roche.

“Strike the viol; touch the lute; wake the harp; inspire the flute.” John Dryden’s celebratory text is matched by Henry Purcell’s wit and playfulness. A winning moment for me is when the strings and recorders seamlessly take over from the singer, whoever that might be, at 2’ 20”.

I once booked to hear this idiosyncratic jazz great perform in New York, only to be presented instead with a man in a long blue gown with a cigarette in a long silver holder doing a Bette Davis impression. For over an hour. Tea for Two was never more suggestive.

Richard Strauss’s response to the horrors of the 2nd world war. It defies obvious interpretation, but is clearly a mourning for the destruction of Germany and culture. These verses were written on the original manuscript:

But, what goes on in the world, No-one really understands it rightly,

and also up to the present day, no one desires to understand it.

Conduct yourself with discernment , Just as the day offers itself;

Think always: it's gone well up to now, so might it go until the end.