The week in classical: The Elixir of Love; Septura; Bone-Afide – review

Donizetti’s sparkling romcom is on a wartime footing in ENO’s sitcom-style new production. And in a great week for brass premieres, enter 22 trombones…

Howells & Wood: Quartets album review – early and late-flowering first world war string quartets

Lost on a train and reconstructed, Herbert Howells’s youthful String Quartet No 3 is paired with the String Quartet No 6 by his teacher, Charles Wood

Philharmonia/Blomstedt review – the collective performance of a lifetime

The 97-year-old conductor led the Philharmonia – on exceptional form – in one of the finest performances of Mahler’s epic Ninth Symphony one is likely to hear.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra /Wigglesworth/McCarthy review – an impressive, auspicious start

Mark Wigglesworth began his tenure as the BSO’s Chief conductor with a bold programme of Wagner, Walton and Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand – to which Nicholas McCarthy brought delicacy and drama

Five-hour avant garde Philip Glass opera among ENO’s Manchester plans

Programme for company’s move north includes Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, Britten and a new youth company

Adèle Hugo: Mélodies sur des poèmes de Victor Hugo review – a daughter’s voice uncovered

Composer Richard Dubugnon has given colourful life to previously unknown songs by the great French author’s youngest child, whose life descended into tragedy

Tom Coult: Pieces That Disappear album review – strikingly rooted and assured works from young composer

This distinctive collection brings cabaret, country dances and a streak of melancholy to bear

More endurance than you can shake a stick at: does conducting keep you young?

The 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt is in London today to conduct the Philharmonia. He is one of a very long line of maestros working well into old age

Morley/Montague Rendall/Martineau review – Wolf’s Liederbuch sounds exquisite

The singers were on wonderfully expressive form for this performance of Hugo Wolf’s song cycle – one of music’s great disquisitions on the nature of love

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Payare review – colour, pace and silky strings

The North American musicians and their Venezuelan conductor brought a programme of Habibi, Berlioz and Beethoven – with Javier Perianes the soloist in his first piano concerto – to London

From the salon and the scarf dance … to silence: the music of Cécile Chaminade

Her work was played at Queen Victoria’s funeral, and her compositions celebrated all over the world – but today she is barely known. Stephen Hough on why he is putting Chaminade in his current season

The Elixir of Love review – Donizetti’s romcom staged as second world war sitcom is hugely enjoyable

Set among land girls and flying aces Harry Fehr’s new staging is a lot of fun, with Thomas Atkins making a fine ENO debut and Rhian Lois a terrific lady of the manor

The week in classical: The Tales of Hoffmann; Philharmonia/ Salonen; Berlin Philharmonic/ Petrenko – review

Wild fantasies take hold in Offenbach’s compellingly strange opera; Lawrence Power is more than a match for Magnus Lindberg’s new Viola Concerto; and to the underworld with the Berlin Phil

‘Take anything, but please not my voice!’: the Royal Opera’s Sound Voice Project

In a space that usually rings with opera, a poignant and moving video installation examines the intimate connection between our voices and our selves

Tchaikovsky: The Seasons album review – exquisite care and ego-free piano playing

Bruce Liu’s performance is superbly polished, but wonderfully free of mannerisms, giving these charming salon pieces the respect and sincerity they deserve