A Mass of Life review – magical and ecstatic Proms performance of Delius’s magnum opus

Mark Elder and the BBC Symphony Orchestra make such an outstanding case for Delius’s setting of Nietzsche that its 37-year absence from the Proms is baffling

Le Concert Spirituel review – a sumptuous musical journey to late Renaissance Florence

Striggio’s mass, lost for 400 years, was the centrepiece of this imaginative concert of 16th- and 17th-century music that possibly worked best for radio listeners

BBCNOW/Bancroft/Grosvenor review – from the brilliantly bonkers to heavyweight Shostakovich

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Revue Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band was an eccentric and joyful delight and Benjamin Grosvenor dazzled in Ravel’s bluesy Piano Concerto in this BBC National Orchestra of Wales prom

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