Embracing the whole world, Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is a vast fresco in which nature, man and the spiritual interact on a cosmic scale. Directing the combined forces of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus and Tiffin Boys' Choir, and with the movingly expressive voice of Hanna Hipp, Vasily Petrenko reveals all the richness of this visionary peak of Post-Romanticism.

The superlative Pygmalion chorus are at the center of this new recording of the St. John Passion. Their striking presence radiates throughout the work, their exemplary articulation and collective energy moulding the drama and carrying it's emotional charge. Raphael Pichon's flexible yet precise direction restores it's original dramatic arc, instilling the peerless team of soloists with the same demandingly high standards of musical narrative and truth. This Passion wins out through it's clarity of gesture and compellingly forceful actualization.

From the tenderness of Faure's songs to the famous Sonata by Franck, via Honnore, Busser and Enescu, the viola here champions the French School in it's widest sense: full of lyricism, sophistication and intensity, here is a program to match the abilities of Timothy Ridout and his partner at the piano, Jonathan Ware.

In 1786, Haydn composed The Seven Last Words of Christ for orchestra. Ten years later he produced a stunning choral version, which Justin Doyle and the RIAS Chamber Choir and Konzerthausorchester Berlin now invite us to rediscover. Together with four exceptional soloists, they reveal all the dramatic power of the work, it's expressive intensity and liturgical fervour.

For the third volume of their Schubert 200 series, Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz celebrate the composer's refound exuberance. After the sunlit summer of 1825, 1826 was a year of renewal for Schubert, bringing an astounding rush of artistic energy. These Lieder, pitched between nostalgia and quiet confidence, sing of a hope transcending the vagaries of life.

The Curious Bards immerse us in the 18th-century popular music of Ireland and Scotland, with reels, jigs, songs and dances that circulated in the oral tradition and in print, from the airs of Turlough O'Carolan to the great collections of the period. Impelled by an irresistible energy and underpinned by historical research, this album restores the vitality of this music that lives for the dance, for the preservation of folk memory, and for sharing with others.

Juliette Hurel and Isabelle Moretti present an inspired selection of French music for flute and harp, featuring key masterpieces alongside some rare delights. From the intensely vocal melodic line of Faure and Debussy's playful exploration of timbres and resonances to the subtly sculpted writing of Jean Cras, this recital highlights the virtuosity and expressive verve of a duo of great stylistic finesse.

For their first harmonic mundi album, Florent Albrecht and his Ensemble L'Encyclopedie explore the mischievous world of the Mozarts, father and son. Whether in the well-known Toy Symphony, the tinkling bells of Leopold's A Musical Sleigh Ride or the 'How to compose all wrong' tutorial of Wolfgang's A Musical Joke, joy and fantasy are mixed with a portion of subtle wit - qualities shared by the polished stylistic approach of the performers.

Completely contrary to the usual image of J.S. Bach as a recluse in his ivory tower, Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti reveal his lively admiration for the Italian music of his time, particularly that of Vivaldi and the brothers Marcello. Here Bach discovered sunlight and luminous colours that never ceased to nourish and inspire his musical imagination.

Two German Romanticism enthusiasts, Raphael Severe and Adam Laloum, have planned a trip for us on the wings of song. Transcribing for clarinet and piano some of the most beautiful lieder of Schumann, Wagner, and Brahms, without the help of words they have unveiled all their poetry and their indescribable colors.

A world removed from the grand and awesome visions of the Last Judgement that so often characterize settings of the Mass for the Dead, Brahms conceived a work of 'consolation for those who are suffering'. Having spent more than ten years absorbing this German 'humanist' requiem, this album's performers have meticulously shaped every bar of this compact work, achieving a form of polyphonic transparency that confounds the senses and transcends the universality of it's message.

Ultra-sensitive poet of the keyboard Adam Laloum immerses us in the kaleidoscopic world of Schumann: the famous Kreisleriana and their outbursts of passion and reverie heard alongside the rather rarer Novelletten, a theatre of the intimate and fantastic. Everywhere Laloum revels in the emotional riches of a piano indwelt by the inner voice of romanticism.

This is not Julien Libeer's first Ravel recording, but for a long time he has wanted to explore the whole of Ravel's piano works, even a little more. For only the complete works, or nearly, are essential in order to square the circle. "And yet, we keep studying them with 'all we can bring as an offering', as Lipatti used to say. His music - lucid, ardent - wakes you up, keeps you on the edge. In passing, it seems to make amends for all that's imperfect about the world."

The fruit of a long-standing collaboration between Jean-Guihen Queyras and choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (whose acclaimed production Mitten wir i'm Leben sind has had over 100 performances worldwide), this new recording of Bach's Cello Suites arrives 17 years after his first reading that quickly set the standard. Profoundly influenced by his close connection to dance, the cellist has drawn fresh inspiration from the source. Today, he is ready to offer his latest look at the iconic cycle.

A memory of family evenings, this album created with the renowned musician and producer Rob Mounsey goes far beyond a simple recital: it is an intimate gathering, at the crossroads of ancestral recollection and musical imagination. Yiddish song, Romantic lied, opera arias, jazz, and Broadway musicals: a tenor already well-versed in early music ventures here across continents, generations, and repertoires. Each piece becomes the echo of a story shared between nostalgia, invention, and transmission.

This third and final album of the impressive complete set from the Cuarteto Casals immerses us in the twilight world of Shostakovitch's last three quartets. Legacy works of the years 1970-74, movingly marked by signs of his illness and acute awareness of approaching death, they strike the ear with their condensed formal daring and raw emotion.

For this, the eleventh volume of his complete edition, Benjamin Alard has assembled all the keyboard masterpieces that Bach published under the heading Clavier-Ubungen I and II - the six Partitas, the Italian Concerto and Overture in the French Style, supplemented here by the brilliant Duetti from Clavier-Ubung III. Two remarkable harpsichords lend their voices to these expert readings: the sumptuous Hass of 1740, and for the first time in this recording venture, an English Kirkman built in 1757.

For their first CD exploring the world of Bach, Sebastien Dauce and his Ensemble Correspondances give new life to the young composer's first sacred cantatas - BWV 4, 106 and 131 - written in Muhlhausen. Combining the Lutheran tradition with a faint breeze from Italy, these works already reveal the dramatic invention and formal rigour of a fully functioning creative mind.

Between the passing flirtations of an evening and solemn oaths of eternal love, Gwendoline Blondeel and Quito Gato invite us on a piquant sentimental journey, to the sounds of the theorbo, the baroque guitar and the vihuela, the lute's Aragonese cousin. From Spain to Italy, via France, they animate the map of love with villanelles, madrigals and other love songs of the early Baroque.

Soprano Giulia Semenzato and guitarist Jadran Duncumb team up for this passionate and poetic program, from Schubert and Rossini to the even more private songs of Giuliani, Sor and Doisy. Far more than just a recital, here is a probing exploration of wide-ranging emotions, seen through the prism of an amorous interplay between voice and guitar - and a vibrant encounter between bel canto and the beginnings of Romanticism.