Women and the Piano is Susan Tomes’s homage to the female composer-pianists through the ages who have all-too-often slipped through into obscurity. Their often-extraordinary stories are told in the accompanying booklet, and their music given a chance to re-live its contemporaneous lustre—they may be little-known today, but during their lifetimes these composers moved in the uppermost echelons of musical and royal society.

Minsoo Sohn makes his debut Hyperion recording with an impressively lyrical interpretation of Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier Book 1. First Prize Laureate of the 2006 Honens International Piano Competition, Sohn has performed throughout Europe, North America and Asia, earning particular acclaim for his searching interpretations of Bach and Beethoven.

Steven Isserlis plays The Marquis de Corberon is an opulent boxed-set celebrating the 300th anniversary of the eponymous 1726 Stradivarius, cited as one of the world’s greatest cellos. Here we have 10 CDs of Isserlis’s greatest albums performed on the instrument—with music ranging from his recent Boccherini ‘Music of the Angels’ album to Concertos by CPE Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvořák right up to John Tavener, enabling listeners and enthusiasts to enjoy this incomparable instrument across a range of eras and styles.

This month sees the release of a further three albums in Hyperion’s Vinyl Edition. All are new to vinyl and feature some of the artists with whom the label has enjoyed particularly close or long-standing associations over the years. They are released as limited-edition 180g LPs, presented in full-colour gatefolds and with sleeve notes included.

Steven Osborne’s 2013 recording of Musorgsky’s Pictures from an exhibition & Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives won that year’s Gramophone Instrumental Award: ‘This may well be the most lucid and musicianly “Pictures” on record. Hyperion’s sound and presentation are beyond praise.’ Similarly ecstatic reviews greeted Marc-André Hamelin’s recording of Chopin Piano Sonatas Nos 2 and 3. Marc’s first (and thus far only) all-Chopin album united and surprised critics across the world as poetry combined with Hamelin’s superhuman virtuosity, The Sunday Times noting that ‘Hamelin, a poet among virtuosos, brings sensibility and a brilliant technique in equal measure to this oft-recorded music. Spellbinding.’ And from 1987 we have a chance to join Gillian Fisher and Michael Chance as they get straight to the soul of the glorious Pergolesi Stabat mater. This seminal album from The King’s Consort was hailed by Gramophone as being ‘so greatly superior to all previous recordings of Pergolesi’s deathbed Stabat mater as to put the others completely out of the running’.

Joseph Nolan unleashes the majestic Stahlhuth-Jann of Église Saint-Martin de Dudelange in Luxembourg for a second instalment of Organ Works by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The main work here is the set of thirteen Prayers—be they hieratic or heroic—which make up Op 64. Additionally Nolan tackles the reverberant Op 54 Benedictus, and the first six of the improbable Études pour les pieds seulement, tipping a wink to the fact that much of this music owes its existence to the composer’s predilection for the short-lived ‘piano à clavier de pédales’.

A new album from Decca Classics this month showcases the abundant talents of saxophonist Jess Gillam. Effortlessly spanning 900 years of music, Shine is a bold reflection of the energy and eclecticism of Jess’s musical upbringing and tastes.

On Signum Classics, La Serenissima’s latest foray into the world of unexpected album titles brings us Hell’s Angels, director/violin virtuoso Adrian Chandler putting together an enticing sequence of works by Vivaldi, Marcello, Leclair, Guillemain and Mascitti. And Promised Land from Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and Artistic Director Christopher Gabbitas surveys two and a half centuries of American choral music in a rich and purposefully programmed celebration of America’s choral heritage.

A new release from Decca Classics introduces a remarkable prodigy with Himari – Debut. The audacious programme opens with Wieniawski’s rarely heard Violin Concerto No 1 which was recorded live with the Berliner Philharmoniker (incidentally making Himari the youngest violinist to debut with the orchestra since Yehudi Menuhin in 1929) before orchestra is replaced by pianist Chelsea Wang for a sequence of miniatures by Chopin, Sibelius and Godowsky. The album then returns to Wieniawski for his popular Fantasy on themes from Gounod’s Faust.

Two new releases from Signum Classics this month see a further instalment in Marios Papadopoulos’ cycle with the re-issue of Beethoven Piano Sonatas Opp 14 & 22 and Finzi: The dance continued from tenor Nick Pritchard and pianist Ian Tindale. Here we have not only the cycles Till Earth outwears, A Young Man’s Exhortation and Oh fair to see, but also five further songs which have never previously been recorded.