Hyperion Records

Natalie Clein takes top billing on Hyperion's Record of the Month for August 2012, her thrilling programme centred on Bloch's Schelomo & Bruch's Kol Nidrei drawing the very best from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ilan Volkov. It's the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Juanjo Mena who get to face the monster that is the Messiaen Turangalîla-Symphonie, acknowledged masters Steven Osborne and Cynthia Millar wielding piano and ondes martenot to positively electrifying effect.

Meanwhile, in their acoustically revered Austrian monastery, the wonderful Cinquecento have been lavishing their attention on the Richafort Requiem—long thought to be by Josquin, the work is in fact a phenomenally intricate memorial to the older composer and is here presented alongside a moving array of other laments, plus the Josquin models on which the Requiem draws.

Re-issued this month are Elizabeth Wallfisch's definitive recording of the first six of the landmark Op 2 Vivaldi Violin Sonatas, and The Nash Ensemble's invigorating romp through the later Lambert Piano Concerto, which also includes Mr Bear Squash-you-all-flat.