With the Dvořák String Quartet & String Quintet, October's essential Record of the Month couples two of this composer's greatest and most life-affirming works. Given outstanding advocacy from the Takács Quartet and Lawrence Power the 'American' quintet emerges as a masterpiece every bit the equal of Dvořák's other, better-known, works written in the New World. Angela Hewitt is, unsurprisingly, proving as fine an exponent of Scarlatti as she is of Bach (and Couperin, Beethoven, Ravel …). In Scarlatti Sonatas – 2 she presents a further seventeen of these most perfect of miniature worlds in limpid, crystalline performances.

Steven Osborne is no stranger to Debussy Piano Music. His earlier collection was hailed as 'magisterial', and this successor—a delicious confection centred on the two sets of 'Images'—is certain to be greeted with similar critical superlatives. Titles can be misleading: quite apart from being a virtuoso showpiece for two high tenors (Samuel Boden and Thomas Walker), John Blow's Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell is no funereal dirge but a work of surprising, not to say prevailing, delight. Here it's the highlight in a collection of enticing rare vocal and chamber works performed by Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen with all their customary flair and sensitivity.

The prize-winning Sollazzo Ensemble makes its debut recording for Linn Records with Parle qui veut, a programme of 'Moralizing songs from the Middle Ages' in performances which shine bright new light on this fascinating repertoire. On territory rather better trodden, Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau present an accomplished programme of Lieder by Schumann & Mahler. A debut concerto recording from much-lauded cellist Corinne Morris is entitled Chrysalis – Cello works by Haydn, Couperin & Monn: a crisp Scottish Chamber Orchestra joins the journey.

A new release from SDG brings us the Bach Magnificat & Missa in F, the former in its explosive original version, the latter being one of the so-called 'Lutheran Masses' dating from the 1730s. Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists in these compulsive performances.

Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione (Scipio's dream) was composed in 1771, but quite possibly not performed until some two centuries later. A celebratory homage to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, this one-act drama from the teenage composer brims with writing that is consistently accomplished and vibrant, as indeed is this new recording of it from Classical Opera under the direction of Ian Page.

For LSO Live an all-star cast joins Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra for Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. This gripping rendition of the composer's only opera was recorded live in January 2016 and is testimony to the conductor's long relationship with this exquisite work.

The Hallé label this month sees the latest release in its majestic Vaughan Williams Symphonies cycle. Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hallé Orchestra through the boisterous No 4 of 1935 and the cinematically liberated No 6, written during the dying years of World War II.

Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort delve into the vast seam of what might be termed 'modern madrigals' in Silence & Music, their latest album for Signum Classics: a bitter-sweet programme infused with tragic beauty. The Hertfordshire Chorus has recorded James McCarthy's Codebreaker and Will Todd's Ode to a Nightingale, conductor David Temple and the BBC Concert Orchestra revelling with them in these significant new works. Peter Donohoe continues his successful cycle with a lithe new recording of the Shostakovich Piano Concertos & Sonatas; David Curtis conducts a responsive Orchestra of the Swan.