When Angela Hewitt admits to a particular satisfaction with a recording, you know the results are going to be rather special and Love songs—a recital of twenty-three transcriptions for solo piano—is guaranteed a place in listeners' affections. These brilliant transformations of some much-loved originals by, among others, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Gershwin offer an abundance of delights, making July's Record of the Month the most seductive of prospects. Critical accolades of Garrick Ohlsson's previous recordings of the composer for Hyperion have recognized 'a born Brahmsian … the muscular strength and facility of finger tempered by breadth of outlook and solidity of intellect' (BBC Music Magazine). These equally distinguished accounts of the first two Brahms Piano Sonatas are every bit as fine, and further demonstrate the resilience of that bond.

As well as being one of the world's leading bassoonists, Laurence Perkins has the knack of devising exceptionally intriguing programmes (and indeed album titles). Voyage of a sea-god showcases his instrument across a wide range of twentieth-century repertoire, in which Bax and Bantock rub shoulders with Richard Rodney Bennett and David Bedford. Participants in the odyssey include pianist Michael Hancock, the Carducci String Quartet, and—in important recordings of works by Maconchy and Panufnik—the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Goodchild.

An occasional series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: The Complete Songs of Francis Poulenc from Graham Johnson (‘a gorgeous collection, and for sometime Poulenc sceptics like me, a real revelation’—The Guardian), Jean Richafort's Requiem & other sacred music from Cinquecento (‘quite simply, sublime’—International Record Review), and the Complete works for violin and piano of Franz Schubert from Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien (‘performances which it is hard to imagine ever being bettered’—BBC Music Magazine). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

Continuing to showcase the classical output of a multi-BAFTA-Award-winning composer, Signum Classics has recorded Christopher Gunning's Symphony No 5 & String Quartet No 1. The symphony—ambitious in scale and form—is performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, while The Juno Quartet provides the coupling.

New on the King's Cambridge label this month we have the Complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé—astonishingly representing some fifty per cent of the composer's entire œuvre. Thomas Trotter returns to the chapel in which his extraordinary career began, performing on the majestic organ of King's College Cambridge.

Two EPs from Signum Classics bring us multi-clarinet-and-percussion confections in the form of Asphalt cocktail, October & Blue shades—American big band favourites by John Mackey and Frank Ticheli and a wistful Eric Whitacre interlude—as re-imagined by Julian Bliss and Joby Burgess, plus The Library, Vol 3 from The King's Singers—five more of their archetypal close-harmony arrangements, plus a brief excursion into insanity.

Cantus is an all-male vocal ensemble based in Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota. Their new album Manifesto, their first for Signum, epitomizes much of the group's ethos, with most of the works featured having been written specially for them and all being first recordings.

Emmanuel Despax has teamed up with conductor Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to record the monumental Brahms Piano Concerto No 1. The fruit of a long-held ambition, he completes his new Signum album with the enchanting Op 39 Waltzes, here duetting with Miho Kawashima.