Mishka Rushdie Momen’s debut Hyperion album ‘Reformation’ topped the UK Classical Chart, persuading critics and listeners worldwide to embrace the rich sonorities of a modern grand piano in early works written originally for harpsichord. With Hall of Mirrors, Mishka turns from England to France and jumps forward two generations to the court of Louis XIV and in particular to the music of Versailles. Here we encounter music by two of the greats—François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau—alongside an extended suite by the rather less well-known Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, described by contemporary writers as ‘the marvel of our age’.

The latest in Hyperion’s series of limited-edition boxed-sets brings us to The Complete Violin Sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Recorded by Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien, this multi-award-winning set of 10 CDs comes with comprehensive commentaries from Misha Donat. ‘If ever a Mozart recording were self-recommending, this is it’ (BBC Music Magazine).

Mark van de Wiel has teamed up with Soloists from the Philharmonia to record Strange Loops – Clarinet Quintets by Anna Clyne, Ruth Gipps & Carl Maria von Weber. While the Weber needs little introduction, this is the premiere recording of Anna Clyne’s riotous contribution to the genre, and Mark has included the Gipps Rhapsody ‘simply because it’s so gorgeous’. Much to enjoy, and the album comes to us from Signum Classics.

Crack American low-voice ensemble Cantus’s latest album on Signum is entitled The secret letter, an exploration of those private loves which society has conventionally eschewed. Music by composers as varied as Abbie Betinis, Consuelo Velázquez, Francis Poulenc and Leoš Janáček enfolds extracts from letters by Marcus Aurelius, Emily Dickinson and more in a programme of mesmerizing effect.

Two new albums from Decca Classics this month bring us Mujer Fatal – Portrait of a Woman from the velvet mezzo of Aigul Akhmetshina—a programme redefining the ‘femme fatale’ across Spanish, French, Russian and English songs and with luxurious piano accompaniment from Sir Antonio Pappano—and, from no less a team than the Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Life is a dream – Music composed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, an album of an unsurprisingly filmic exuberance.

Through the powerful darkness … Choral and organ music by Kenneth Leighton is an impressive new set from The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, Fifth Avenue, New York and conductor-organist Jeremy Filsell on the Signum label. The programme includes several intriguing rarities, and second half is given over to an imaginative pairing of Masses, the choral rigour of the Missa Sancti Thomae offset by the organ pyrotechnics of the instrumental Missa de Gloria. Performances throughout are of the very highest quality.

Pianist Tianxu An makes his debut on Signum Classics with a programme of Piano Sonatas by Mendelssohn, Beethoven & Schumann, three works which reflect a specifically German approach to the form, distinct from the Viennese Classical tradition, and which were composed around those years when the genre truly came of age.

A new release from historical piano label APR brings us Karol Szreter – The Parlophon & Odeon recordings, 1926-1931, a double album centred on works by Beethoven (three sonatas and the first-ever electrical recording of the fourth concerto) and Schumann (an impressive Carnaval). The set concludes with an array of short genre pieces and a series of fabulously difficult Strauss paraphrases.

Love Songs & Lullabies by Roxanna Panufnik is a new album from Signum Classics which finds the composer collaborating with musical traditions and performers from around the world on a journey in sound through Croatia, Poland, Ukraine, Syria, China, Chile and Portugal. Fellow travellers include Matthew Barley (cello), Zeynep Özsuca (piano), the Brodsky Quartet and more, and all is bound together by this composer’s unique and very personal harmonic style.

For her latest album on Decca Classics, soprano Lise Davidsen has recorded a thoughtful selection of Opera Arias by Giuseppe Verdi. Here we have scenes from Macbeth, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo and Aida, all of them exploring the emotional worlds of the unfortunate women caught up in the stories. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by one of today’s foremost interpreters of this repertoire, Edward Gardner.