I’m sometimes asked by people, when I tell them I edit Gramophone, what sort of music we cover. On the face of it that seems an odd question, as I’ve already told them it’s a classical music magazine – but any question should encourage a pause for reflection, including about how others see us, and even about how classical music is perceived. I usually describe our coverage as stretching from, say, medieval music to contemporary opera – plus everything in between. Don’t worry, I’m not about to embark here on trying to define ‘classical music’, but it is incredible to reflect on just how diverse the music that we include as part of that term is (and important to keep an ever-open mind as to how that term, and our listening, can be expanded further still). We mark a milestone anniversary for Palestrina this issue, half a millennium having now passed since the birth of someone in whose music performers can still find approaches both new and resonant – not least the ensemble Stile Antico, who are our guides to his life and legacy.

By way of contrast, this month I interviewed the organist and pianist James McVinnie for a podcast about his beautiful new album on the Pentatone label, ‘Dreamcatcher’ – the oldest works there dating back barely half a century, and even then one transformed from an original for looped synthesisers, something very far removed from Palestrina’s world, although by being now played on an organ strangely returning us back to something he might just have understood. Perhaps that’s a nice way to make sense of the diversity of music we cover – threads that unite across centuries. As it happens, McVinnie’s album, including Nico Muhly, Giles Swayne, Meredith Monk, Bryce Dessner and others, is also one that I could envisage sitting happily among a collection or playlist of someone who wouldn’t consider themselves a ‘classical’ listener – an excellent recommendation in fact next time someone expresses curiosity with that opening question!

Nothing in this month’s Editor’s Choices takes us quite as far back as Palestrina – nor for that matter as recent as ‘Dreamcatcher’ – but, as with all monthly selections, it offers a splendid snapshot of the breadth – and the best – of what has been recently released. That albums offering works from 17th-century London to Ligeti emerged from our discussions is a reflection on the continued vitality of the recording industry. The list is also a reflection on the continued brilliance of some of today’s finest artists and ensembles. Did we pause a moment as to whether another Mahler symphony – in this case the Seventh – from Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra could be named Recording of the Month, less than a year after their recording of his Sixth received the same accolade, or, for that matter, only just over two years since another major Munich orchestra, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, received a Gramophone Award for the same work under their conductor, Kirill Petrenko? Not really. Such significant recordings deserve all such accolades and your attention – and in the case of the Seventh Symphony it’s a reminder that the finest works can draw highly different, equally highly charged, performances – and that standards in music-making today couldn’t be higher.