Aurora Orchestra/Collon review – high impact and high intensity as Shostakovich’s fifth is brought to life

A blistering performance of Shostakovich’s fifth symphony was preceded by a virtuosic and spectacular dramatic exploration the work that, however, could have had more bite

Book of Mountains and Seas review – puppets and percussion, Mandarin and a monkish chorus

Visually arresting moments in lanterns and silk, and Huang Ruo’s haunting soundscapes, bring to life ancient Chinese creation myths in Basil Twist’s production

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Hisaishi review – frothing strings and quacking brass as Studio Ghibli’s composer debuts

Switching between podium and piano, Joe Hisaishi’s suite from The Boy and the Heron sparked joy, but Reich’s demanding Desert Music was vibrant and hypnotic

BBCSO/Ollikainen review – Stravinsky’s sacrificial dance had serrated edges

An exhilarating Rite of Spring and a cool-as-ice Bolero were high points in a Prom that also included the UK premiere of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s luminous Cello Concerto

Petrassi: Concertos for Orchestra Nos 7 & 8 album review – dramatic power from rarely heard Italian master

Francesco La Vecchia draws out the fierce contrasts of Goffredo Petrassi’s later music in this new recording of his final two concertos.

Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works II album review – Mallarmé miniatures shine brightly

Ludovic Morlot creates a shimmering web around soprano Fleur Barron’s lucid vocals in Trois Poèmes, on an album that also showcases Shéhérazade and Don Quichotte

Orpheus and Eurydice review – acrobatic Gluck is haunting, dizzying and gasp-inducing

Iestyn Davies is outstanding as the tortured Orpheus in Yaron Lifschitz’s stark and imaginative staging

La Clemenza di Tito review – Emelyanychev and SCO spark magic with enthralling Mozart

With a luxury cast bringing anguish, believability and vocal perfection to Mozart’s opera of love and divided loyalty, this concert performance was flawless

LPO/Gardner/Akhmetshina review – Tippett’s rose lake sounds glorious

Star mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina shone in Ravel’s Shéhérazade, part of a vivid London Philharmonic programme of music evoking fairytales and far horizons

Helen Grime: Chamber Music review – clarity and colour from one of Britain’s most exciting young composers

Informed by Ted Hughes, TS Eliot and the natural world, Grime’s smaller-scale chamber pieces are alive with instrumental texture

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3; Two Scherzos album review – deft execution of the Russian’s early exuberance

Capturing the momentum of two of Shostakovich’s first Soviet-era symphonies, this performance adds a pair of scherzos that pre-date even them

Budapest Festival Orchestra / Fischer review – palpable joy in a vivid Prom pairing of Beethoven and Bluebeard

Conductor Iván Fischer and his players teased out the tiny details in a stirring Seventh Symphony, while Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was full of grisly Hungarian intensity

BBCNOW/Venditti review – ​20th-century British classics shine at a potent patriotic Prom

Including a sugary Rutter premiere, the rarities were a slightly mixed bag, but the classics – The Lark Ascending, Enigma Variations and more – simply soared

BBCSO/Lintu review – ​there’s a good reason these Boulez and Mahler works aren’t often performed

Despite eye-catching percussion and deluxe orchestral playing, these strange, overlong pieces are for die-hards only

Káťa Kabanová review – furtive groping and a wing-bloodied angel stalk flawed staging of Janáček’s opera

Robin Ticciati conducts the London Philharmonic in this finely sung but inconsistent revival of Damiano Michieletto’s 2021 production