Behold the sea itself: the thrilling call to arms which launches Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony rings out spectacularly in Hyperion's new recording from Martyn Brabbins, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Marcus Farnsworth and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. All rise magnificently to the challenges of this epic work; an outstanding Record of the Month for October. Vocal textures—and existential musings—of a very different stamp are to be had in Machaut The gentle physician, the sixth instalment in The Orlando Consort's ongoing survey. The fourteenth-century composer-poet can seldom have known such committed performances, the music brought into sharp relief across seven intervening centuries.

Any new recording from Steven Isserlis is an event and this apposite pairing of the Chopin Cello and Schubert Arpeggione Sonatas does not disappoint, the timbres of Dénes Várjon's mid-nineteenth-century Érard piano adding to the attractions of a highly desirable release. The Romantic Piano Concerto reaches volume 77 with Bronsart and Urspruch Piano Concertos, two splendid works from the series' nineteenth-century Austro-German heartlands featuring the brilliant young pianist Emmanuel Despax. Both he and Eugene Tzigane, who conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, make their Hyperion debuts. And how better to celebrate Leslie Howard's seventieth birthday year than with Liszt New Discoveries – 4? This is a fascinating supplement to Hyperion's comprehensive Liszt project—the hundredth CD, no less—and will be an essential purchase for anyone who has followed this remarkable musician's heroic exertions in the composer's service.

A new release on the Mariinsky label this month presents Valery Gergiev's first recording of Stravinsky Petrushka. This iconic score finds the Mariinsky Orchestra on effervescent form, and is coupled with one of the composer's hidden gems, the witty Jeu de cartes.

Tenebrae, Nigel Short and the Aurora Orchestra join with mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and narrator Simon Callow for A walk with Ivor Gurney, this varied Signum album exploring and developing the works of a composer whose career was shattered by his experiences of war.

Making its debut on the Signum label is the Calidore String Quartet from America. Their programme is entitled Resilience – Quartets by Prokofiev, Janáček, Golijov & Mendelssohn, hard-fought works inviting us all to 'create beauty even in the darkest of circumstances'. A second album in Christopher Glynn's innovative 'Schubert in English' series pairs the powerful experience of Sir John Tomlinson with Schubert's Swansong—profound musical responses with texts to match.

The English Concert and conductor Harry Bicket perform Concerti by Telemann, Tartini & others on a new album for Signum Classics. With solo contributions from varying combinations of two violins, viola, cello and oboe we have here a veritable showcase for the leading players of this most august of ensembles.

LSO Live once more finds Gianandrea Noseda at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra. Shostakovich Symphony No 8 is a brutal testimony to the devastation of war and contains some of the most harrowing music the composer ever wrote. This acclaimed performance was recorded live in April 2018.

Recorded live at London's Royal Festival Hall by Signum, the Chineke! Orchestra's second album presents Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 3 and Sibelius Symphony No 2. Roderick Cox conducts this most exceptional of groups and the soloist is the international prize-winner Gerard Aimontche.

New on the King's College Cambridge label this month is a further showcase for this most iconic of organs: Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur—nine extraordinary meditations touching the very heart of the Catholic faith—in a performance by Richard Gowers.