Brahms: Lieder Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Gerold Huber (piano) (Sony)

Jürg Frey: Voices EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble/James Weeks (Neu Records)

Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO)

Anja Bihlmaier returned to the BBC Philharmonic – for the first time in the Bridgewater Hall as principal guest conductor – with a programme to mark International Women’s Day, and consisting entirely of music by women composers, past and present.

As always, great concerts have outnumbered great opera productions over a year, and all of our national orchestras can be proud of their record. I’ve sometimes started by celebrating youth, and it’s good to be able to do that in the shape of two competition finales totally satisfying as programmes. The palm, though, goes to two veterans who made me wonder at their ease and natural communication.

Discussing 1971’s The Music Lovers with writer John Baxter, director Ken Russell suggested, among other things, that “music and facts don’t mix”. They don’t always line up here, but this film does stand up as a worthy successor to the BBC’s Delius: Song of Summer and Dance of the Seven Veils, the latter deemed so offensive by the Strauss estate that it remained unseen for 50 years.

Arthur Bliss: Works for Brass Band Black Dyke Band,/John Wilson (Chandos)

For 50 years Clonter Opera, the song-on-the-farm project in rural Cheshire, has been encouraging would-be opera stars by giving them a chance to perform in undemanding conditions under the guidance of experienced professional.

It all began with audiences sitting on straw bales in a barn, and only after a purpose-built theatre came into being was there a small pit enabling something more than piano accompaniment for major productions.

For tonight’s performance at Milton Court, the nuanced and delicate tones of strings, voices, harmonium and chamber organ will merge and mingle together to tell tales of a rain-speckled landscape, luck and misfortune, forgotten valour, daily creative rituals and memories slowly vanishing into flames.