Bruce Liu plays Tchaikovsky at the Proms [Sonja Mueller]

CLASSICAL music likes traditions, even if they’re not so old. And an example at the Proms is the new annual tradition of ­playing standard works from memory instead of with the printed parts in front of them on music stands.

Most audiences love to see this, freeing as it does Aurora Orchestra’s young, dynamic players to cavort around the stage in choreographed movement rather than just sit in serried rows of chairs. And it may be that having everybody play by heart means they absorb the music in a deeper way – the jury’s out on that – though it could equally result in crazy mishaps.

For myself, I’m on the fence about it. But I’ve seen Aurora give some fabulously memorised performances in past years, so I’m happy to commend their “liberated” Proms accounts of Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony – there will be two – on Aug 16/17.

As always, they’ll come in the context of a sort of lecture – far more entertaining, stimulating and authoritative than anything you hear on Radio 3 these days – delivered by Aurora’s genial conductor Nicholas Collon. And if the idea of a lecture-concert sounds off-putting, don’t worry. Learning has never been such fun.

l Otherwise a certain highlight of the Proms this week is Striggio’s great 40-part Mass: a piece no one knew much about until a few years ago when a recording dusted down the score to reveal how jaw-droppingly spectacular it is – and will be again on Aug 17, when the Proms performers are the French-based Concert Spirituel under their flamboyant, sharply-dressed director Hervé Niquet.

Then, on Aug 18, comes Delius’s Mass of Life – which isn’t a Mass in the Christian sense but a sprawling choral and orchestra work based on texts by Nietzsche about the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. Mark Elder conducts the BBCSO with massed choirs and good soloists.

The following night, Aug 19, Antonio Pappano brings the LSO to the Albert Hall for a concert performance of Puccini’s 60-minute tear-jerker Suor Angelica: an opera about nuns in which the church (for which Puccini had no great love) comes out badly.

On Aug 20 the glamorous Bruce Liu plays Tchaikovsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto (not to be confused with the far better-known 1st) alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra. And Aug 21 brings another Proms tradition: the annual performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony which, in the old days, always came at the end of the season.

Now it’s a moving feast, done this year by the visiting Danish National Orchestra under one of Europe’s must-hear conductors Fabio Luisi.

All these Proms are at the Albert Hall, and broadcast live on Radio 3. Some will be televised. Details: bbc.co.uk/proms

• Apart from Proms, there’s not much happening elsewhere this week – except at Opera Holland Park where they give house-room on Aug 16 to a touring production of Donizetti’s comedy Elixir of Love staged by an exuberant little company called Wild Arts. Having seen this show some time past when it played the Thaxted Festival, I can confirm it as a winner: brilliantly adapted to a saucy seaside context and a total joy. For one night only. Don’t miss. operahollandpark.com