Performer: BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Evocative Smyth and impressively detailed Strauss from Tausk, and warm Dvořák with soulful playing from Daniel Müller-Schott.

Even if Hubert Parry was overshadowed by Holst and Vaughan Williams, this was a splendid concert of British music. 

Thomas Søndergård’s final performance as chief of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales sees them pull off Mahler 8 in style.

To works by Mendelssohn and Schumann, Søndergård added music by two impressive female composers who died far too young and whose works are far less known than they should be, Lili Boulanger and Morfydd Owen. 

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts a Huw Watkins première and a grand-scale account of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony