Our Recording of the Month for May is out now – Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, starring Lise Davidsen and Gerald Finley with the Orchestra and Chorus of Norwegian National Opera, conducted by Edward Gardner on Decca Classics. As David Patrick Stearns writes in his review, 'Overall, this is an alert, cohesive, significant addition to the discography, one presenting the opera in the continuous flow – no divisions between the three acts – that Wagner originally imagined. It’s also a Dutchman recorded and performed where the opera is set: the Norwegian National Opera, whose handsome white building sits like a high-concept iceberg on Oslo’s urban fjord.'

Also among the May Editor's Choices is 'The Complete Songs of Ravel', masterminded and led by pianist Malcolm Martineau with various singers for Signum Classics. Those who have enjoyed Martineau's similar collections dedicated to the songs of Poulenc, Fauré and Duparc will surely want to dive straight in, and as our reviewer Tim Ashley finds, they wouldn't regret it: 'Martineau, as one might expect, is the most wonderfully accomplished guide through musical and emotional landscapes in which the piano, more often than not, carries equal weight with the voice, deploying a vast range of dynamics and colour that encompasses everything from the filigree whole-tone tracery of ‘Manteau de fleurs’ to the shifting oriental textures of Shéhérazade.'

Conductor Alan Gilbert is the guest on this week's episode of the Gramophone Classical Music Podcast. He speaks to Editor-in-Chief James Jolly about his new recording of Brahms's Symphony No 3 with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, released today. You can enjoy the episode below, or wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts. 

Pianist Margaret Fingerhut's new album, 'Ukraine - A Piano Portrait', is released this week by Somm and features music by Sergey Bortkiewicz, Vasyl Barvinsky, Mykola Lysenko, Levko Revutsky and Valentin Silvestrov. And aside from the artistic merit of the release there is also a charitable aspect, as Jed Distler notes in his review: 'In addition to Fingerhut’s exemplary pianism and programme-building, those who purchase this superbly engineered and annotated release will be supporting a worthy cause, since proceeds from it are designated to raise money for emergency vehicles in Ukraine.'

Composer Maurice Greene was a contemporary of Handel and had a very successful career – Master of the King's Music, Professor of Music at Cambridge and organist of the Chapel Royal were just some of his professional accolades – but his music is rarely performed or recorded today. A new recording of Greene's oratorio Jephtha (from 1737, Handel's Jephtha dates from 1751) by the Early Opera company and conductor Christian Curnyn will surely make the best possible case for Greene's music. The cast features tenor Andrew Staples, soprano Mary Bevan, bass Michael Mofidian, tenor Jeremy Budd and soprano Jessica Cale.