Hyperion's Record of the Month for January finds Stephen Layton and The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge revelling in the Parisian glories of Saint-Eustache for Hail, gladdening Light & other works by David Briggs, the composer himself providing the resplendent organ improvisations which tie the programme together. These artists' earlier collaboration was lauded by Gramophone as ‘one of the finest CDs of sacred choral and organ music you’ll ever hear’: further glories in abundance here await.

Howard Shelley has teamed up with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra to record an eighty-sixth volume in our glorious Romantic Piano Concerto series: Piano Concertos by Tellefsen & Kalkbrenner, or—more strictly—the two concertos by the magnificently named Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen, originally of Norway, and the equally magnificently named Grande Marche interrompue par Un Orage et suivie d’une Polonaise by his fellow Parisian Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Tellefsen's works date from the middle decade of the nineteenth century, a soundworld grounded in the works of his beloved Chopin but not ashamed to sprinkle sequins chipped from the workbench of his sometime teacher Kalkbrenner.

The ongoing series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: a volume in our Complete Strauss Songs series from Anne Schwanewilms and Roger Vignoles (‘by any yardstick this is magnificent singing’—International Record Review), Missa Ego flos campi & other sacred music by Jacobus Vaet from Cinquecento (‘stunning … this deserves to be widely heard’—Gramophone), and Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote & Till Eulenspiegel from Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln (‘an irrepressible performance’—BBC Music Magazine). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra continue to impress with their latest recording: Beethoven Symphonies Nos 2 & 7. This cycle was recorded live at the John F Kennedy Center in Washington DC during the 2022 and 2023 seasons and is well worth hearing.

Heading up this month's releases from Signum Classics we have a new recording of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man in an 'ensemble version' by the composer. The Hertfordshire Chorus and London Orchestra da Camera are conducted by David Temple. Joanna Forbes L'Estrange's Heaven to Earth presents a full album of choral delights from a composer rapidly establishing a popular following, Ben Parry conducting London Voices. And Llŷr Williams has recorded a generous selection of Schumann Piano Works, including Papillons, the Davidsbündlertänze and the ebullient Faschingsschwank aus Wien.