Our beloved Romantic Piano Concerto series has come to an end—235 works for piano and orchestra later, and with a sheaf of awards to its name. Now we’re collecting all 87 of the original volumes, plus a bonus handful of additional albums which fully round out this remarkable compendium, into two fifty-CD sets. The first box, The Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto Edition – 1991-2007, presents the first 43 volumes from the original series, plus concertos by Rachmaninov, Scriabin and others which were recorded over the same period: an unbeatable treasure trove of pianistic marvels.

Carl Vine Child’s Play is a double album of chamber music by one of the most approachable and—with an output embracing eight symphonies, thirteen concertante works, numerous chamber works plus music for film, television, dance and theatre—prolific composers of our day. The album also marks the final recording of the Goldner String Quartet, whose members have chosen to honour the occasion in the company of friends, including long-time collaborator Piers Lane. The album’s title is taken from the String Quartet No 6: in his booklet note, Vine writes of being commissioned to create music that ‘uplifted, edified and elated’, and April’s Record of the Month offers eloquent proof of his success.

‘England one God, one truth, one Doctor hath / For Musicks Art, and that is Doctor Tye, / Admir’rd for skill in Musickes harmonie.’ These lines may have been written posthumously, and by the composer’s putative grandson, but there is no reason to doubt their essential sincerity. Christopher Tye: The Peterhouse Mass & other works offers a welcome opportunity to evaluate the ‘skill in music’s harmony’ of a direct contemporary of Thomas Tallis. Like Tallis, Tye had to negotiate the perilous musical and ecclesiastical politics of four English monarchs, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I (who is alleged to have complained that Tye’s organ playing ‘contain’d much musick, but little delight to the ear’). Listeners to this new release from the all-male voices of Cinquecento can be assured that it contains much music and a great deal to delight the ear.

The Rodolfus Choir has turned to the music of a favourite contemporary British composer to record A tree is a song & other secular choral works by Cecilia McDowall. Here is a voice whose knowledge of the written word and resourcefulness when it comes to choosing just the right text to set is always apparent. The album comes to us from Signum Classics, and with such enthusiasm and musicianship as these young singers display, these first recordings are sure to win new friends. Ralph Allwood and Elinor Cooper share conducting duties.

Isata Kanneh-Mason has recorded Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 & works for solo piano, orchestral backing for the ebullient concerto coming from the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Bancroft. Solo piano works make up the balance of this new album from Decca Classics: the mighty Toccata in D minor, Piano Sonata No 3, and a selection of the composer’s own ballet suite arrangements.

Exemplifying the finest traditions of the French Piano School, Pascal Rogé has returned once more to the studios of Decca Classics to record the complete Fauré Barcarolles, thirteen of this composer’s most beguiling works and crafted between 1882 and 1921. Rogé caps out these new recordings with the ever-popular suite Dolly, Elena Font providing the additional hands.

Signum Classics brings a new name to the fore with The Backyard of the Village & other orchestral works by Xiaogang Ye. Born in 1955, this versatile composer writes music of spacious appeal, subtle hints of Chinese musical tradition only widening a palette of fresh colour. The music is admirably served by Dane Lam at the helm of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

LSO Live has returned to one of the first works the label recorded back in 2002: Holst’s The Planets. This time it’s the turn of Sir Antonio Pappano to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in this legendary work from their repertoire, and he couples a fine rendition with the rather less well known, but equally opulent, Tintagel by Sir Arnold Bax.

A joyful double album from historical piano label APR this month brings us The complete Boston ‘Pops’ recordings of Jesús María Sanromá. The programme includes Sanromá’s trademark Gershwin warhorses, of course, but also concertos by Mendelssohn, Paderewski and MacDowell, Liszt’s epic Totentanz (all with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler), and a set of piano solo Puerto Rican dances by Juan Morel Campos, our pianist’s nod to his beloved homeland.