Pussy Riot: CYKA review – debut album from iconic Russian agitators is let down by blunt-force EDM

On a disappointing record helmed by co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, corny guitars and generically moody synths undermine the activist group’s political acuity

Brown Wimpenny: Long Live Brown Wimpenny review – Manchester folk collective get bawdy and shambolic

Named after a 19th-century relative, this sprawling group foreground folk’s rough edges, but are best in the emotional, less showy moments

Sally Beamish: House of Wonder album review – a musical shapeshifter celebrates 70 years

The British composer’s celebratory album is a family affair

Katia and Marielle Labèque: 55 album review – a handsome tribute to the sisters’ musical curiosity and brilliance

The pianist sisters’ celebration of their 55 years of recording is a thoughtfully curated compilation that reveals the extent of their omnivorous musical appetites

The Mahler Experiment review – physical drama comes at a musical cost in choreographed symphony

Tom Morris’s staged take on Mahler’s first symphony is valiantly performed by Stephanie Childress and Sinfonia Smith Square, but the result feels more like R&D than a finished product

Lola Young review – buoyant, brilliant return from British pop’s great oversharer

The Messy hitmaker is back after taking time away from live performance, and this charming, relatable set shows why she is such a gen Z icon

Kelsey Lu: So Help Me God review – strange, graceful songs drifting from pop’s edgelands

Aided by Jack Antonoff, Kim Gordon, Sampha and more, the cello-playing singer-songwriter’s abstracted yet tuneful second album is worth the seven year wait

Danish String Quartet review – captivating performance from a world-class group

The quartet communicated intimately and naturally in a programme of music by Shostakovich, Ravel and Stravinsky

Manchester Camerata review – mental torments build up to a royal meltdown

A clever programme brought a mounting sense of lost grip, from Errollyn Wallen voicing the shame of Hamlet’s Ophelia, to Schumann’s fraught love declaration, and Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King

The Marriage of Figaro review – Danielle de Niese’s deft direction weds finery with fun

A touring show was quite a challenge for the opera star’s first directorial gig, but dynamic singing, charismatic orchestral play and clever stage jokes pull it off brilliantly

St Vincent review – majestic orchestral transformations of jagged art-pop

The mercurial artist reworked her catalog with technical mastery – and playful dance moves – accompanied by the Boston Pops orchestra

BBCNOW/Bancroft review – conductor takes final bow in imaginative programme of vivid colours and emotions

Works about infatuation and deep feeling were fitting choices with which the Ryan Bancroft bid a celebratory farewell to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Krishna review – the mystery of John Tavener’s ‘mystic pantomime’ is why it has been staged

Singers and orchestra toiled admirably with this posthumous world premiere about the Hindu god, complete with inflatable deadly serpent. But the work feels straight from the 19th-century Orientalism playbook

Taylor Swift: I Knew It, I Knew You review – giddy up! Song for Toy Story cowgirl Jessie is Swift’s best in years

Full of handcrafted care and the rootsy soul of her country origins, this gently elated song is a reminder of what fans love about Swift … and the film series

Zoh Amba: Eyes Full review – raw, rugged country rock also has real tenderness

Better known as a formidable free jazz saxophonist, these thrashing songs about the artist’s Tennessee childhood home share a similar genre-pushing intensity