“I’m a German Romantic at heart – there’s no better music.”  I found myself saying this recently after performing Robert Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe. It was in response to a deceptively simple question from an audience member: why Schumann? Other composers are, of course, available (oh Schubert, where would we be without you…), but for the moment, at least. I am Schumann-obsessed.

Despite Proms appearances, I'm still not sure that Tom Fetherstonhaugh, mover and shaker of the young Fantasia Orchestra, has yet had quite the limelight he deserves for original programming that reaches out, not to mention for the sleek and romantic sound he got from a relatively small body of strings in this lovely sequence (portamentos as apt for Gershwin as for Mahler).