A new release of Mozart Piano Sonatas K457, 533, 545, 570 & 576 marks the completion of Angela Hewitt’s self-recommending Mozart sonata cycle. Angela recorded all the sonatas in chronological order, and those issued here—the third and final double album—are the products of the composer’s maturity: Viennese masterpieces dating from the late 1780s and contemporary with the great piano concertos, symphonies and operas with which they stylistically have so much in common. As usual, Angela’s accompanying essay is no mere afterthought but offers a fascinating ‘performer’s-eye’ view of the works themselves, and of the interpretative challenges they pose. ‘An excellent recital that yields rewards on every listen’ was BBC Music Magazine’s verdict on a previous instalment, and this, Hyperion’s Record of the Month for June, is a memorable conclusion to a fine series.

Judith Weir’s In the Land of Uz and Amy Beach’s The Canticle of the Sun make up just the sort of release which has always been something of a Hyperion speciality—two major choral works (by two major composers, including a former Master of the King’s Music), which may have been overlooked by a wider audience and yet which amply repay closer acquaintance. Both are settings of texts which address the inadequacies and complexities of the human condition (from the Book of Job and Saint Francis of Assisi), but any expectations of unremitting solemnity are quickly dispelled: the sinuous, jazz-inflected soprano saxophone which plays a prominent role in Dame Judith’s piece is alone worth the price of admission. David Hill conducts, and the varied forces—choir and vocal soloists, accompanied by instrumental ensemble in Uz and orchestra in the Canticle—are drawn from Yale Schola Cantorum.

Nigel Short and the expert singers of Tenebrae have recorded A prayer for deliverance. This new album from Signum Classics features a complete performance of Herbert Howells’s tender Requiem, the capstone of a programme of rest and repose where new works—including the title track by young American composer Joel Thompson—sit contentedly amidst favourites from the likes of Holst and Vaughan Williams.

Crossing borders is another triumphant instalment in La Serenissima’s enigmatically themed discography on Signum Classics. Here, director-cum-violinist Adrian Chandler draws together concertos—most of them ‘con molti istromenti’—by Telemann, Sieber, Durante, Brescianello and of course Vivaldi. Unctuous flute and recorder solo contributions come from Katy Bircher and Tabea Debus respectively.

For his latest recording on Decca Classics, Finnish maestro Klaus Mäkelä has chosen to couple Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique & Ravel’s La valse, two cornerstones of the French orchestral tradition. And who better to record them than the effervescent Orchestre de Paris? These new versions offer pulsating new visions of both works.

The music of Calvin Hampton invites listeners into the audacious world of a New York maverick, The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and Jeremy Filsell offering up a generous range of Hampton’s choral and organ works. While the latter have been sporadically represented in the catalogues, this new album from Signum Classics is believed to be the first commercial recording to showcase his choral oeuvre, much of it composed during his tenure at the Parish of Calvary St George’s in Manhattan.

Volume 4 of The Panufnik Legacies from LSO Live continues with the vital work of offering a full orchestral voice to composers as-yet little known. Fourteen are represented here, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jack Sheen (himself one of the featured composers).

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring must be one of the most-recorded of all ballet scores. Here Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance which fully engages with this explosive score.