Among this week's top picks, Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho revisits music from his first ever public performance with an all-Debussy disc, and Renée Fleming's final Der Rosenkavalier is released on DVD and Blu-ray. There's a wealth of symphonic and choral repertoire on offer too, including the next instalment in Giovanni Antonini's award-winning Haydn series.
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, François-Xavier Roth
113 years after the first performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, François-Xavier Roth (who was appointed music director of the Gürzenich-Orchester in spring 2014) conducts the orchestra who gave the work its premiere under the composer.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 & Méhul: Symphony No. 1
Soloists Européens Luxembourg, Christoph König
Étienne Méhul (1763-1817) sprang onto the Presto radar earlier this year when the first recording of his opera Uthal was released; now König pairs his First Symphony with Beethoven's Eroica, written around the same time and occupying a similar sound-world.
Available Format: CD
Haydn 2032 Volume 5 - L’Homme De Genie
Kammerorchester Basel, Giovanni Antonini
The fifth volume of Alpha's long-range celebration of this 'man of genius' couples his symphonies numbers 19, 80 and 81 with a piece by Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-92), which Haydn described as 'a work which will be considered a masterpiece in every century'.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Debussy: Images, Children's Corner and Suite Bergamasque
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)
The South Korean pianist (who took first prize at the 2015 Chopin Competition) is getting in early with the celebrations for Debussy's upcoming centenary, with a popular programme including a work which featured in his first-ever public concert - Children's Corner.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
JS Bach: Magnificat and Handel: Dixit Dominus
Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
The Gramophone Award-winning vocal ensemble and their young French director have won praise for the 'clear soft textures' and 'emotional restraint' of Bach's early cantatas; now they turn their attention to one of his best-known mature works.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Brahms: An English Requiem
Mary Bevan (soprano), Marcus Farnsworth (baritone), James Baillieu & Richard Uttley (piano); The Choir of King's College London, Joseph Fort
The Choir of King’s College London (joined here by two fine young British soloists) present Brahms's German Requiem in the English-language version which was used for the London premiere of the work in 1871.
Available Formats: CD, Hi-Res FLAC/ALAC/WAV, FLAC/ALAC/WAV, MP3
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (and works by Berg and Ligeti)
Barbara Hannigan (soprano), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle
When Rattle recently celebrated his arrival as the LSO's music director with an all-Stravinsky programme, many appetites were already whetted by this Rite from 2015 which also saw Barbara Hannigan deliver a surreal tour de force in excerpts from Ligeti's Le grand macabre.
Available Format: Blu-ray + DVD Video
