With Haydn's String Quartets Opp 42, 77 & Seven Last Words The London Haydn Quartet completes a much-admired survey of their namesake's mature quartets. This final instalment provides a fitting conclusion to a series which, throughout, has communicated a real sense of joy, both in Haydn's inexhaustible inspiration and in the collaborative music-making which characterizes all this remarkable group's performances. This is repertoire which has been lucky on record, but April's Record of the Month need not fear comparison with accounts from other notable quartets, past or present. Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles … takes the listener on a transcendental journey from the depths of geological times to the very gates of heaven. Inspired by the colossal landscapes of southern Utah, which the composer visited while working on the score, who better than the Utah Symphony under the inspirational direction of Thierry Fischer to tackle the considerable demands of this thrilling epic?

Trinity College Choir Cambridge and Stephen Layton bring their customary virtues of flawless execution and innovative programming to Come to me in the silence of the night – Choral works by Ivo Antognini. Released to celebrate the composer's sixtieth birthday this year, it's difficult to imagine a more enticing birthday present than this: pristine accounts of fifteen a cappella choral works.

The ongoing series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: Schubert Piano Duets from Steven Osborne and Paul Lewis (‘no one with a taste for superlative, passionately committed music-making, ensemble of the highest calibre or some of Schubert's most beautiful music can afford to miss this one’—International Record Review), Music for string quartet by Paweł Szymański & Paweł Mykietyn from the Royal String Quartet (‘a superbly performed disc of interesting contemporary string quartet music’—MusicWeb International), and Gaude gloriosa & other sacred music by Thomas Tallis from The Cardinall's Musick (‘a sublime tribute both to one of England's greatest composers, and to the skill and conviction of one of today's finest ensembles’—Gramophone). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

Ottorino Respighi's Ballad of the gnomes is the epic opener of the latest re-issue on the Cala Signum imprint. Geoffrey Simon conducts an explosive Philharmonia Orchestra in the all-Respighi programme which also includes the 'Botticelli pictures' and the suite for organ and strings. On the main Signum label we have a new recording of Violin Sonatas by Vaughan Williams & Grieg, RVW's sole foray into the genre and Grieg's infectiously sunny No 2. Charlie Siem and Itamar Golan perform. Electric is the latest from the uniquely eclectic cello of Matthew Barley, here intertwined with and embracing the myriad wonders of electronic music-making from composers at the forefront of the genre.

New from LSO Live this month—and marking seventy years since the composer's death—we have a new recording of Prokofiev Symphony No 1. Written, perhaps surprisingly, during the turbulent summer of 1917, the 'Classical' abounds in youthful high spirits and joie de vivre, as clearly relished by conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the London Symphony Orchestra in this performance captured live at the Barbican in February 2020.

A third Magnificat collection from St John's College Choir Cambridge and Andrew Nethsingha comes from Signum Classics, and what a treat it turns out to be: truly excellent performances of much-loved warhorses by the likes of Howells and Dyson sit alongside a more controversial contribution to the Anglican liturgy by Bryan Kelly and Pavel Chesnokov's sublime Nunc dimittis from the Orthodox tradition.

On 30 September 2021 Santtu-Matias Rouvali kick-started his tenure as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra with blazing performances in front of a capacity audience at London's Royal Festival Hall. An opulently presented double album, Santtu conducts Strauss captures the palpable thrill of the occasion, the epic Eine Alpensinfonie and Also sprach Zarathustra here coupled with studio recordings of Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche. Also on Signum Classics, A Celebration of Paul Reade makes its distinctive mark rather more quietly, as Philippa Davies, Laurence Perkins, the English Chamber Orchestra and others pay a loving tribute to a much-loved absent friend whose works prove to be rather more familiar than the name initially might suggest.

Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra is the mighty centrepiece of the London Symphony Orchestra's latest recording under conductor François-Xavier Roth. Coupled with Debussy's Diaghilev-inspired Jeux, these performances were captured for LSO Live at the orchestra's Barbican home in 2018.

Vitamin C is James Rhodes's latest album for Signum Classics. Here this least conventional of pianists presents a lovingly nourished sequence of works by Chopin (including the weighty Sonata No 3), concluding with some favourite snippets of Bach: altogether 'a monster dose of Vitamin C for the soul'.

Cecilia McDowall's Da Vinci Requiem & Seventy degrees below zero are the subject of a new recording from Signum Classics. The Requiem was commissioned and premiered by the performers here—Wimbledon Choral, the City of London Sinfonia and conductor Neil Ferris—and across seven varied movements interweaves familiar texts from the Latin Mass for the Dead with the translated musings of Leonardo. The expert soloists are Kate Royal and Roderick Williams, while Benjamin Hulett takes the lead in Seventy degrees below zero, a cantata for tenor and chamber orchestra reflecting on the final writings of Captain Scott.

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.