Somewhere—by the sleepy lagoon, perhaps?—a voice is calling, while Matilda rhumbas and Radetzky waltzes … welcome to the pianistic oneirism of Stephen Hough's Dream Album, a typically eclectic selection of twenty-seven miniature jewels. Ranging from Dvořák, Elgar and Liszt to Eric Coates and Arthur Tate via Minkus and Mompou, they coalesce into a truly wondrous Hyperion Record of the Month for June. By contrast, another instalment of Beethoven Piano Sonatas from Angela Hewitt presents just four works, but what works they are—the sublime, late E major sonata distilling some of the composer's most profound utterances.

Further evidence that everything is 'going right' for Jonathan Cohen at present (Gramophone) comes with Charpentier Leçons de ténèbres, Litanies & Magnificat; a perfect realization of that ecstatic, sorrowing beauty so characteristic of the French Baroque, and for which Arcangelo have a particular affinity. And there's no risk of The Nash Ensemble's status as one of the world's great chamber groups being challenged, with their marvellous programme of the Dohnányi String Quartet, Serenade & Sextet—music which is far too little known, but more than deserving of revival.

LSO Live kicks off an important new symphonic cycle with Shostakovich Symphony No 5, the work which famously saved its composer from the clutches of Stalin's 'Great Terror' and remains to this day something of an enigma. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the London Symphony Orchestra.

On the Hallé's own label, Sir Mark Elder has recorded Wagner's Das Rheingold, a glittering line-up of soloists—including Sarah Tynan, Susan Bickley, Madeleine Shaw, Leah-Marian Jones, Samuel Youn, Iain Paterson and Reinhard Hagen—captured live at the Bridgewater Hall home of The Hallé Orchestra in November 2016.

The 24 Caprices by Paganini: merely technical exercises, or the K2 of the repertoire? A new LSO Live album presents Roman Simović in warmly recorded and richly expressive performances of these unique works. Simović also takes the lead in Stravinsky's A soldier's tale; Malcolm Sinclair narrates over an ebullient LSO Chamber Ensemble.

The house of the mind is a new Signum album from Queen's College Choir Oxford. Director Owen Rees has assembled a programme of apparently diverse works by or in response to Herbert Howells' uniquely powerful contribution to the genre. An eighth volume in David Goode's Complete Bach Organ Works returns us to Cambridge, and the Metzler organ of Trinity College Chapel.

Beethoven & Mendelssohn Concertos provide the stage for Min-Jung Kym's recording debut. This stunning pianist has long revered Beethoven's 'Fourth', shares Mendelssohn's 'Double Concerto' with Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay, and enjoys full-bodied support from the Philharmonia Orchestra and Clemens Schuldt. Similarly on Signum, Richard Blackford's Niobe is a new concertante work which was commissioned in 2017 by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra who here perform under Ben Gernon. Tamsin Waley-Cohen's violin gives voice to the heroine's tragedy.

Daylight declines & other choral works by Paweł Łukaszewski provides the latest showcase for the choral mastery of Tenebrae and their director Nigel Short. This new Signum album includes evocative settings of the Tenebrae Responsories and a tripartite set of Lamentations.

The wonderful singers of Gallicantus have recorded Sibylla, director Gabriel Crouch daringly splicing together Lassus' inscrutable Prophetiae Sibyllarum with a contemporary response to their texts and sound world by Dmitri Tymoczko. Another enterprising release from Signum Classics.