Hallé: Huw Watkins album review – Covid-era commissions capture energy and hope after lockdown

Watkins’s symphony, fanfare and concerto make for a spirited showcase of the orchestra’s clean harmonies

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

BBCSO/Elder review – like a Klimt painting in sound

The final concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s season brought us Franz Schreker’s sensual and elusive Chamber Symphony and Mahler’s intense Das Lied von der Erde

The week in classical: BBC Proms week one review – hallelujahs all round

First Night fireworks with Elim Chan and co, a triumphant farewell from Mark Elder, and a ravishing love triangle kicked off a re-energised Proms

Prom 4: Hallé/Elder review – a farewell eclipsed by the quality of the music-making

Mark Elder has led the Hallé for 24 years, championing the company’s choirs, in great voice here in a striking James MacMillan work, and bringing cerebral discipline and striking emotional truth to Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

Elgar: Symphonies Nos 1 & 2 album review – warmth, refinement and conviction

These performances are as fine as any currently available on disc, and a testament to the deep musical relationship that Mark Elder’s has built over 24 years as director of the Hallé

Simon Boccanegra review – vast forces bring Verdi’s ‘fiasco’ to vivid life

Opera Rara joined with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder for this semi-staged performance of the original version of Verdi’s opera

La Forza del Destino review – superb voices and slick dance routines for Loy’s reimagined Verdi

Christoph Loy’s 2019 staging staging feels more cogent in this, its first revival, and baritone Etienne Dupuis is stunning as Carlo

The week in classical: Itch; Semele; Prom 16: Hallé/Elder – review

Jonathan Dove transforms Simon Mayo’s ripping yarn into an exhilarating instant classic; it’s Thebes by way of Port Talbot in Adele Thomas’s Glyndebourne debut; and all hail the Hallé

Prom 16: Hallé/Elder review – orchestra and conductor seem to think, breathe and feel as one

Mark Elder marshals huge forces to bring compelling depths and power to Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony in an unmissable performance

The week in classical: Abomination: A DUP Opera; Aida – review

Its Belfast premiere positively crackled, and four years on, Conor Mitchell’s lush, searing satire on DUP homophobia continues to provoke

A Shropshire Lad: English Songs Orchestrated by Roderick Williams review – every word perfectly coloured, every phrase exactly weighted

Baritone Williams has orchestrated this wide selection of songs by British and Irish composers and illuminates each one with moving personal touches

Pavel Kolesnikov/Hallé/Mark Elder review – superb Sibelius and no-frills Rachmaninov

Kolesnikov met the challenges of Rachmaninov’s demanding Third Piano Concerto with ease, and the orchestra soared during Sibelius’s glorious Third Symphony

The week in classical: Don Pasquale; Holst’s Sāvitri

The charms of Donizetti’s comic opera continue to elude, while a Holst rarity shines in an elegant fusion of music and movement

Britten Sinfonia/Elder review – Holst’s Indian gem takes centre stage

Savitri was given a rare outing in a concert that framed Holst’s Indian opera with works by Grace Williams and Britten, and closed with a boundary-crossing fusion that Holst would have relished