For over 100 years the only opera by a woman to have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Der Wald
is a taut, brooding drama where the simplicity of village life comes under threat from the uncontrollable desires unleashed by the darkness of the forest.Richly orchestrated, harmonically daring, and demanding a huge expressive range from the cast, the narrative drives relentlessly forward from wedding to tragedy in a single act, observed pitilessly by the eternal spirits of the forest.John Andrews conducts the BBC Singers, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and an international cast in the first ever recording of this work, using Smyth's English version of the libretto.

Possessing a broad repertoire, Finnish flutist Sami Junnonen is an international soloist and orchestral musician with a growing recording career. He attended the Lyon Conservatory, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and the Sibelius Academy, where in 2008 he earned his Master's degree with distinction. Significant events in his career include his 2012 recital at the Helsinki Music Centre, and his tour of Russia in 2017. He has appeared with many orchestras, including the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Oxford’s Somerville College Choir under its director Will Dawes presents this compelling new programme of seasonal choral works solely by female composers from across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and including no fewer than eleven world premieres. This wide-ranging selection of repertoire reflects Somerville’s unique role as the only non-denominational college chapel at Oxford, as well as remaining true to its founding principle of enabling women. Together these works tell a different story of the nativity but also of the times we live in, when diversity and equality capture the spirit not only of Christ, but Christmas itself.

Continuing his landmark survey of the piano works of Elisabeth Lutyens, pianist Martin Jones delves deeper into the music of this undeservedly neglected composer. This second volume features further world premiere recordings including pieces from her early maturity such as The Check Book, a compelling collection of twelve miniatures for children; Piano e Forte that recalls Lutyens’s lifelong enthusiasm for the music of Debussy and explores the possibilities of the instrument in a way she had never attempted before; and Maybe–Encore Op. 159, which was Lutyens’s final work for piano composed in 1982. Also included is an early unpublished sonata movement (Allegro molto) possibly written as early as the 1930s.

A rapacious dragon has been terrorising a Yorkshire village. Gubbins and his daughter Margery, together with Mauxalinda, decide to seek the help of Moore of Moore Hall. Moore needs persuading away from his beer but succumbs to Margery’s pleading, and her promises of love. Unfortunately, he had already promised to marry Mauxalinda, and so the love triangle has to be resolved in dramatic fashion before Moore heads out and defeats the dragon, restoring harmony and prosperity to the village.Following the BBC Music Magazine Opera Award for his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, conductor John Andrews returns with the world premiere professional recording of John Frederick Lampe’s (1703-1751) operatic comedy The Dragon of Wantley. With librettist Henry Carey, Lampe combines a first-rate score with a quintessentially English plot, told in a tone of earthy satire, pastiching opera’s conventions with skill and affection, but also a razor wit.

A close contemporary of Buxtehude, Johann Pachelbel was, by all accounts, an outstanding keyboard player himself, and his compositions provide a fascinating stylistic bridge between early-Baroque composers such as Frescobaldi and Froberger (both of whom influenced him) and the later music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. Organist Matthew Owens continues his major exploration of the many extant organ works of Pachelbel with this second volume, recorded on a recent instrument by the renowned French organ builder, Bernard Aubertin. The recital includes Pachelbel’s largest set of Magnificat Fugues – 23 in total – alongside free works and chorale-based works.

Devoted to the music of Ivan Klinger, this album of premiere recordings from guitarist James Akers highlights works from this relatively unknown composer. Klinger’s seeming anonymity belies the composer’s substantial and high-quality oeuvre. Born in 1818 in Seltz near Kherson (today’s Ukraine), Klinger was one of the few guitarists to devote himself to the Western style six-string guitar. Featuring both original compositions and arrangements of other works, Klinger’s playful and serious, virtuosic and challenging music here receives the attention that is long overdue.

Featuring a stellar cast of performers, and curated by pianist Dylan Perez, this complete anthology of Samuel Barber’s songs present those works published during his lifetime, together with those published posthumously, some of which are recorded here for the first time. Barber was clear as to what he wanted from very early in his life, and this strength of character and courage to follow his path is heard throughout Barber’s significant contribution to the genre. At a time when American classical music was heavily influenced by experimentalism, Barber’s inclination for "traditional" harmony and melody helped set him apart. Barber’s vocal music demonstrates the ease he finds in the marriage of text and music.

The Sidney Sussex College Choir is one of the centuries-old ensembles at the University of Cambridge established to sing for chapel services.

The Berkeley Ensemble returns with this album of chamber works by Ludwig van Beethoven celebrating the composer’s 250th anniversary year.

Cello and piano duo Robin Michael and Daniel Tong return to Resonus with this dazzling collection of the complete works for cello and piano of Ludwig van Beethoven. Written across his productive life, they contain much that is considered pioneering and innovative within the genre.

Following their debut album for Resonus Classics, The Choir of HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, with their director Carl Jackson, returns with an album of choral works by the late-Tudor composer Thomas Tomkins (1572–1656). Featuring elaborate verse anthems, two settings of the Evensong canticles, and four-part psalm settings, this album reminds us of Tomkins’s prominence as one of the greatest Chapel Royal composers of the late-English Renaissance.