Haydn and Strauss: Nelson Mass and A Hero’s Life

No prizes for guessing the real hero of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. With its swashbuckling self-confidence, self-mocking humour and a positively steamy love scene, this “Hero’s Life” is very much the world according to R. Strauss – an exuberant, off-the-scale showpiece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Hannu Lintu, making a much-anticipated return.