She Composes Like A Man

It’s of course preposterous that the mark of Ethel Smyth’s success was that “she composes like a man”, as one male critic once wrote of her. Fast forward a century or so, and trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth has whimsically and defiantly used the quote as the title for this beautiful and often joyful brass band album of music by female composers. Helseth and her all-female tenThing brass ensemble explore a variety of works by Lili Boulanger, Sally Beamish, Clara Schumann, Florence Price and many more, all in gorgeously crafted arrangements. This is musicmaking of the highest quality, from the tightness of tenThing’s players to their richly burnished tone that casts all 16 of these pieces in fresh new light. Highlights include Bacewicz’s traditional dances (the opening Oberek and Track 7’s Mazovian Dance) that emerge full of boundless energy, Ethel Smyth’s dramatic “Voices Sing of Immortality” from her choral symphony The Prison, and Sally Beamish’s choral work In the Stillness which is simply ravishing.