Sir Simon Rattle's new cycle of Mahler's symphonies with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is shaping up to be an exceptional one. The first release, the Ninth Symphony, was an Editor's Choice in December 2022, with Edward Seckerson writing, 'I have known Rattle’s work from the beginning of his career – and mine – and I cannot remember a time when it was freer, more insightful, more revealing and more urgent.'

The second instalment (featuring the Sixth Symphony) went one better – it was our Recording of the Month in April 2024. Edward Seckerson wrote: 'Rattle chronicles its highs and lows, its succession of terrifying apparitions, with an unerring sense of its cumulative desperation.'

Today sees the release of Symphony No 7, and – once again – it is the Recording of the Month, this time in the February 2025 issue (also out today). 'This is shaping up to be an extraordinary Mahler cycle with an extraordinary orchestra,' writes Edward Seckerson in his review. 'Their possibilities are seemingly limitless – no ceiling – and all the wonderful detailing that Rattle has uncovered over the decades in exhaustive study of these scores now emerges with a freedom and spontaneity that feels truly organic.' You can enjoy the full review in our Reviews Database.

Speaking of impressive recorded cycles, the New York City-based Calidore String Quartet return today with the completion of their Beethoven cycle, the Op 18 Early Quartets, for Signum Classics. Their recent account of the Middle Quartets was a Recording of the Month in the October 2024 issue, with Richard Wigmore noting, 'Beethoven-playing of rare vividness and technical aplomb.' And today's release is an Editor's Choice in the brand new February 2025 issue, 'very enthusiastically recommended' by Rob Cowan (whose review is also now in our Reviews Database).

Patricia Kopatchinskaja's new album – 'Exile' – is a typically thought-provoking release, featuring Panufnik's Violin Concerto, Schnittke's Cello Sonata No 1, Schubert's Minuet, D89 No 3, Kugikly Wyschnegradsky's String Quartet No 2 and Ysaÿe's Exil!. As Richard Whitehouse writes in his review (an Editor's Choice in February 2025): '"Exile", recorded with unsparing immediacy and pertinently annotated, is a further essential acquisition from this most questing of present-day musicians.'

Kopatchinskaja is an Artistic Partner of Camerata Bern, and they again feature on 'Exile'. Two previous collaborations (both for Alpha), 'Plaisirs illuminés' and 'Time & Eternity', were shortlisted for Gramophone Awards and are definitely worth seeking out.

Eugen Jochum's 1967 recording Orff's Carmina Burana with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin for DG is the subject of fascinating Classics Reconsidered article in the February issue, and today sees the release of a new account from Paavo Järvi with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and Zürcher Sing-Akademie, and soloists Russell Braun, Max Emanuel Cenčić, Alina Wunderlin. In his review, Edward Seckerson writes: 'Paavo Järvi runs a tight ship in this spirited rendition and his chorus – the Zürcher Sing-Akademie – is lean and punchy and impeccably tuned. Better yet, they are a vital extension of the percussion section in rhythmic terms using the percussiveness of the medieval Latin text as the purveyor of all lustiness, be it sexually or alcoholically induced.'

‘The Age of Extremes’ – the new album from Il Pomo d’Oro and harpsichordist Francesco Corti for Arcana – is an exploration of music from the mid-18th century and a highly-charged compositional style known as Empfindsamkeit. The recording includes music by CPE Bach and his brother Wilhelm Friedemann, as well two concertos by Georg Benda. Lindsay Kemp, in his review in the February issue, writes:'The performances are first-rate, perhaps unlikely to be bettered.'

And if you would like to explore further, Corti and Il Pomo d’Oro have recorded a distinctive survey of JS Bach's harpsichord concertos for Pentatone, the third volume of which was an Editor's Choice in October 2022. They were also collaborators with tenor Michael Spyres for his 2023 Gramophone Award-shortlisted album 'Contra-Tenor' and countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński's 'Anima Aeterna', an Editor's Choice in the 2021 Awards issue.