When no less an authority than Peter Phillips—here directing the mixed voices of El León de Oro—considers a Mass-setting by a little-known sixteenth-century composer to be a 'stand-out masterpiece' then you can be sure that the results are going to be rather special. And this new recording of George de La Hèle's Missa Praeter rerum seriem & works by Manchicourt, Payen & Rogier is certainly that, Hyperion's Record of the Month for April fully meriting such enthusiasm.

Any new album from Piers Lane is guaranteed to please, and Russian Variations delivers in abundance. Rachmaninov's Variations on a theme of Chopin was the composer's first large-scale piece for solo piano, and dates from one his happiest and most productive periods, the years following the success of the second piano concerto. A mature compositional voice is unmistakable and the work, a typically heady brew of fearsome technical demands and intense emotion, brings Piers's recital to a brilliant and tumultuous conclusion.

The ongoing series dedicated to choice selections of our all-time favourite recordings—ones you might possibly have missed? This time: Voyage of a sea-god from Laurence Perkins and friends (‘the whole album represents the kind of triumph only possible from a small, imaginative, independent recording company’—The Times), Cantatas & Theatre Music by Thomas Linley from The Parley of Instruments (‘simply stunning’—Audiophile), and Liszt's Missa Choralis & Via Crucis from the Corydon Singers (‘essential listening’—Gramophone). If you don’t know them already, a track from each is included on our monthly sampler which is free to download.

Three seminal orchestral works from the 1940s are brought together on LSO Live with Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, Spring Symphony and Young person's guide to the orchestra, the Spring Symphony featuring soloists Allan Clayton, Elizabeth Watts and Alice Coote plus massed voices from the Tiffin School and the London Symphony Chorus. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in these gripping performances captured live at the Barbican in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

On Signum the Carducci String Quartet continues a vibrant cycle with the release of Shostakovich String Quartets Nos 9 & 15, two major works which fall at either end of what can be regarded as the composer's 'late' period. The earlier volumes in this series have been widely praised for their passion and intensity.

Husband and wife team Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung have recorded Debussy & Ravel for two, their third album for Signum Classics to explore the joys of music for piano duo and piano four hands. Debussy's Petite suite and Ravel's Mother Goose sit at the heart of a fascinating programme.

The Choristers of King's College Cambridge have teamed up with violinist Hannah Perowne and the Britten Sinfonia to record John Rutter's Visions, a work originally composed for the Temple Church in London, whose historical associations also provided the composer with his inspiration. Daniel Hyde conducts in the opulent spaces of King's College Chapel.