One hundred and twenty-five years after its premiere, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's Requiem finally receives the modern recording it fully deserves. Appropriately enough for one of the Victorian choral epics commissioned by the redoubtable Birmingham Triennial Festival, this triumphant 2022 revival features the combined forces of the University of Birmingham Voices and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. With the contribution of a radiant quartet of soloists led by Carolyn Sampson, no less, and under the inspired direction of Martyn Brabbins, the work can never have sounded more convincing, more moving, or more beautiful than it does on May's Record of the Month. The collections of shorter works which comprise Bach's Notebooks for Anna Magdalena are still probably better known by name than for a detailed knowledge of their musical contents (a certain Minuet in G by one Christian Pezold excepted), a state of affairs gloriously remedied by Mahan Esfahani and Carolyn Sampson, who makes a welcome second appearance on Hyperion this month. However skilled the notebooks' recipient (and Anna Magdalena Bach was a professional musician in her own right), she would surely have delighted to hear such consummate performances.

Few piano recitals can easily switch from Schubert dances to George Botsford's Black and white rag by way of Liszt and Szymanowski, and fewer still can do so convincingly. But then, there are few recitals like Piers Lane goes to town again, in which the much-admired pianist once more treats us to some of his favourite encores: this is, as Piers Lane writes, 'a collection of very personal guilty pleasures'.

The ongoing series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety & Bolcom's Piano Concerto from Marc-André Hamelin and the Ulster Orchestra (‘sparkling, electrically charged recordings’—Fanfare), the Complete Szymanowski music for violin & piano from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien (‘this is a major release’—International Record Review), and Monteverdi Sacred vocal music from Emma Kirkby and The Parley of Instruments (‘one of the most beautiful records I have heard this year’—The Guardian). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

On the King's College Cambridge label we have a new recital album from that most masterful of baritones Christopher Purves, astonishingly his first recorded programme of lieder. Sympathetically accompanied by Simon Lepper, My soul, what fear you? includes masterpieces by Richard Strauss, Schubert, Schumann and Mahler, as well as some delectable rarities—in equally delectable arrangements—by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill.

La Serenissima and conductor/violinist Adrian Chandler have a new album on Signum this month entitled An Englishman Abroad. Their typically effervescent programme is an exploration of 'Nicola Matteis the Younger and the English style in 18th-century Europe', and additionally includes works by Purcell, Telemann, Vivaldi and Brescianello.

Divine Music is a new album on Signum Classics from countertenor Iestyn Davies and pianist Joseph Middleton. Subtitled 'An English Songbook', the wide-ranging programme includes treasures by Purcell as reimagined by Benjamin Britten and George Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, as well as new songs in an old vein by Thomas Adès and Nico Muhly.

Steve Reich's Music for 18 musicians is an icon of its time and it has long been Colin Currie's dream to commit it to disc, now gloriously realized for the percussionist's own label (in London's Abbey Road Studios, and in the midst of an international tour) by the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals: a thrilling opportunity get immersed in this 'musical beehive' of four grand pianos, multiple mallet percussion, amplified bass clarinets, a choir of voices, strings and of course … the famous maracas.

The Dixit Dominus and Mass by Francesco Scarlatti are monumental works—both written for 16 voice parts in addition to instruments—by a decidedly lesser-known member of the Scarlatti musical dynasty. Born in Sicily in 1666, this younger brother of Alessandro (and therefore uncle to Domenico) held a series of successful posts throughout Italy, before travelling to England and then to Ireland where he eventually died in penury. Christopher Monks and his indomitable Armonico Consort first tackled this music some two decades ago. For this new recording on Signum Classics, the autograph scores have been restored to present what can safely be regarded as the first authoritative chance to explore some marvellous music.

New from 1equalmusic we have Songs From The Heart, a creative collaboration between Indigenous composer-singers Elizabeth Sheppard and Sonya Holowell and The Song Company, led by Antony Pitts. Directly inspired by the text and principles underlying the Uluru Statement from the Heart, this a cappella presentation was toured in New South Wales and Canberra in 2022, at a time of potential positive cultural change in Australia.