• As a conductor, Iván Fischer, inspirational founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, has never hesitated to wear his heart on his sleeve, or to encourage his musicians to do likewise. Why else listen to yet another account of one of the most recorded symphonies in the repertoire? Their account of Beethoven’s Symphony No 3 “Eroica” (Channel Classics), along with the Coriolan Overture, is fresh and vigorous. Attack is clean, strings crisp, brass and woodwind full of personality, horns properly heroic.
From the offset, the music’s revolutionary zeal is to the fore, but the essence of the work lies in the tragic second movement. At the start of the finale, pizzicatos are fat and witty, before the taut whirl of counterpoint begins. In the album notes, Fischer writes: “May the world follow Beethoven’s vision and may all conflicts lead to gentleness and harmony. I wish all world leaders should listen to Beethoven’s Eroica symphony and be inspired by its wisdom.” We can only agree.
• Don’t let the wry title, She Composes Like a Man (Lawo Classics), deter you. The quotation, intended at the time as praise, refers to Ethel Smyth, among the composers featured on an album of brass music performed by the trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and her all-female tenThing Brass Ensemble. Mostly arranged by Jarle Storløkken, the short works span Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann to Lili Boulanger, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Mel Bonis. The 3 Morceaux, Op 15 by the Norwegian composer and pianist Agathe Backer Grøndahl burst with charm. Share My Yoke by Joy Webb, the Salvation Army major who died last year aged 91, has hymnal lyricism. Sally Beamish’s In the Stillness, originally a choral work, might have been written for brass. Top playing and plenty to discover.
• As part of Radio 3’s revamped schedule, ’Round Midnight, the new hour-long weekday evening jazz programme, begins, with a particular focus on the UK jazz scene, presented by British saxophonist Soweto Kinch. Monday to Friday, 11.30pm/BBC Sounds.
