Women and the Piano is Susan Tomes’s homage to the female composer-pianists through the ages who have all-too-often slipped through into obscurity. Their often-extraordinary stories are told in the accompanying booklet, and their music given a chance to re-live its contemporaneous lustre—they may be little-known today, but during their lifetimes these composers moved in the uppermost echelons of musical and royal society.

From the ‘undisputed greatest string quartet in the world’ (Daily Telegraph) comes the Takács Quartet’s 21st album on Hyperion: Mozart String Quintets K515 & 516. Recorded at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2025, the Quartet is joined by internationally celebrated violist Timothy Ridout, whose participation brings a fresh dimension to the inner voices of these two masterpieces, all lusciously captured by Hyperion’s recording team of Andrew Keener and David Hinitt.

Back after several years in the ‘no longer available’ black hole, Hyperion is pleased to be able re-issue on CD Garrick Ohlsson’s epic set of The Complete Works of Frédéric Chopin. Smartly presented, and with commtaries by Jeremy Nicholas, the box contains all Chopin’s solo piano music—the Piano Sonatas, Preludes, Études, Ballades, Rondos, Scherzos, Variations, Polonaises, Nocturnes, Waltzes, Mazurkas, other miscellaneous piano pieces—plus the Piano Concertos, orchestral works, songs, and chamber music.

It’s eight long years since Angela Hewitt first turned her Mastery of the Baroque to the endlessly inventive wonders of Domenico Scarlatti’s Keyboard Sonatas. With her ‘gifts as a programme builder’ and her ‘deep affinity for Scarlatti and exemplary musicianship’ (Gramophone) Hewitt has now chosen 16 more sonatas, accompanied as ever by her own beautifully considered and scholarly booklet notes that emphasize further a lifetime studying and performing these works. For the first time, this new album is also available on 180g vinyl.

Dame Felicity Lott—whose death was announced in May this year—belonged to a select group whose song recitals filled concert halls across France, Germany and the UK: ‘Some singers are revered, others are loved and it is fair to say that Dame Felicity belongs in the second group. While she had the fine vocal technique and authority on stage that might have invited reverence, it is the warmth of her performances—‘humanity’ seems the right word—that one remembers above all’ (Gramophone). Flottiana – The Art-Song Legacy of Dame Felicity Lott has been compiled with unparalleled care by Graham Johnson, her accompanist of five decades, to offer the perfect overview of her vast song legacy across ten generously filled CDs: albums devoted to Richard Strauss, Schubert, Schumann and Wolf respectively are presented alongside a live Wigmore Hall recital, three albums exploring French mélodies, one of English song and one presenting ‘Flott’ (as she became affectionately known) at the start of her recital career with other members of The Songmakers’ Almanac.

A new album from Decca Classics this month showcases the abundant talents of saxophonist Jess Gillam. Effortlessly spanning 900 years of music, Shine is a bold reflection of the energy and eclecticism of Jess’s musical upbringing and tastes.

On Signum Classics, La Serenissima’s latest foray into the world of unexpected album titles brings us Hell’s Angels, director/violin virtuoso Adrian Chandler putting together an enticing sequence of works by Vivaldi, Marcello, Leclair, Guillemain and Mascitti. And Promised Land from Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and Artistic Director Christopher Gabbitas surveys two and a half centuries of American choral music in a rich and purposefully programmed celebration of America’s choral heritage.

Joseph Nolan unleashes the majestic Stahlhuth-Jann of Église Saint-Martin de Dudelange in Luxembourg for a second instalment of Organ Works by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The main work here is the set of thirteen Prayers—be they hieratic or heroic—which make up Op 64. Additionally Nolan tackles the reverberant Op 54 Benedictus, and the first six of the improbable Études pour les pieds seulement, tipping a wink to the fact that much of this music owes its existence to the composer’s predilection for the short-lived ‘piano à clavier de pédales’.

Recorded live at the 2025 Mahler Festival in Amsterdam’s Concergebouw, a new album from Decca Classics brings us Mahler Symphony No 8, the so-called ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with a full complement of eight starry vocal soloists and five choirs coming together for this most grand of symphonic masterpieces.

Reaching farther is a joyful and varied celebration of the musical activities of Clare College in Cambridge, founded by the music-loving granddaughter of Edward&nbsbp;I in 1326 but whose choral excellence is the work only of the past 100 years. This Signum Classics recording features works by fifteen composers with links to the college—many of them sometime members of the choir—and was recorded under the watchful eyes and ears of former director of music John Rutter. A host of voices to discover here, and in performances of impressive vigour.

The latest in his series of re-issues on Signum finds Marios Papadopoulos tackling Beethoven Piano Sonatas Opp 26 & 27, three works published together in 1802. As ever these are fine performances, every bit worthy of a second chance to see the light of day.

A new release from historical piano label APR sees a second release in the ‘Polish Pianists’ mini-series with Raoul Koczalski: Chopin Études, Préludes & Ballades – The 1938/9 Polydor recordings. Much was made at the time of Koczalski’s status as the true heir to Chopin—via his teacher Karol Mikuli, himself a pupil of Chopin—before his style fell from grace in the mid-twentieth century. This re-issue offers us a chance to hear afresh and decide for ourselves.