It's always a pleasure to welcome a new name to Hyperion's eminent roster of pianists, and we're especially delighted to present Mishka Rushdie Momen in Reformation – Keyboard works by Byrd, Gibbons, Bull & Sweelinck, her label debut. A selection of late Tudor music—Rushdie Momen's choice of repertoire is nothing if not refreshingly unpredictable—this recital is a reminder of how persuasive this music sounds on the modern piano when played with such natural authority and understanding. There is a long-established Hyperion tradition demonstrating the suitability of the piano in music originally written for the keyboard instruments of earlier times, and July's Record of the Month marks another splendid contribution.

Queen of Hearts, another of those carefully curated releases which are a speciality of Owain Park and The Gesualdo Six, is a collection of motets and chansons in honour of the Virgin Mary and her earthly counterparts from the courts of early sixteenth-century Europe. Blurring the distinction between sacred and secular, the programme includes music by some of the greatest names of the time—Brumel, Compère, Josquin and Gombert are perhaps the most familiar—and also two contemporary composers: Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade and Owain Park both contribute settings written especially to complement this programme.

The ongoing series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: Friedman & Różycki Piano Quintets from Jonathan Plowright and the Szymanowski Quartet (‘greatly recommended—you won’t regret it!’—Classical Ear), Les Noces & other choral works by Stravinsky from the New London Chamber Choir (‘as magical a musical experience as this imposing score has ever afforded on record’—Fanfare), and Nikolay Roslavets' Chamber Symphony & In the Hours of the New Moon from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov (‘leave it to Hyperion to come up with another first-class presentation of forgotten but fascinating music’—Audiophile Audition). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

A new release from Decca Classics brings us a debut solo recording from Aigul Akhmetshina, a coloratura mezzo with few modern equals. Boldly titled Aigul, the programme takes in flights of fancy from the pens of Massenet, Bellini and Rossini as well as from Akhmetshina's calling-card—Bizet's Carmen—and Daniele Rustioni conducts an enthusiastic Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

New from Signum Classics this month we have Beethoven: The Final Sonatas, and tackling these pillars of the classical repertory is no less distinguished a figure than Melvyn Tan; a valedictory recording—Magnificat 4—with St John's College Choir Cambridge for Andrew Nethsingha made shortly before his move to Westminster Abbey and featuring a wonderfully diverse mix of settings; and a double album from the Sacconi Quartet centred around Graham Fitkin's Loosening, five new works in which the composer variously pits the familiar quartet instruments against saxophone, organ, percussion and harp.

Harmonies of Devotion is a new Signum album from the expert voices of Contrapunctus. Their programme, devised and conducted by Owen Rees, unearths motets of the Italian Baroque preserved for posterity largely through the efforts of collectors hundreds of miles away—at the Academy of Ancient Music in eighteenth-century London. These treasures are here put into context alongside exquisite performances of more familiar works of the period.

Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le Prophète is a grand opera by any standards: its premiere (in Paris in 1849) saw the first-ever on-stage use of arc lights, the whole things lasts over three hours, and it ends with the production-designer-heart-attack-inducing stage-direction 'everything goes up in flames, the palace collapses'. Sir Mark Elder leads the London Symphony Orchestra, Lyon Opera Chorus and an extensive line-up of soloists through this complex riot of religious fanaticism set in the heart of sixteenth-century Europe, and the sound engineers of LSO Live were on hand to capture this rare recording of the complete opera.