Founded under the auspices of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, the label has built a catalogue that consistently rescues, restores and reilluminates corners of the RVW repertoire that the bigger labels have long overlooked. Rise, Heart is another exemplary addition to that enterprise and one of the most rewarding Vaughan Williams discs of recent memory. The premise is characteristically thoughtful: every track here is a first recording of the work in the version presented. At its centre stands the Five Mystical Songs, those luminous settings of George Herbert first heard in 1911, given in Vaughan Williams's own arrangement for voice, piano and string quintet, made around 1925 and seldom performed.

Chandos has performed a genuine service in assembling all four of Arvo Pärt's symphonies on a single disc. Complete recordings of Pärt's symphonies are rare, and the works themselves bear little relationship to one another, each representing a distinct phase of a restless and searching creative life.

Three composers born in a single year — 1685 — represent one of history's most improbable confluences of genius. Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti shared their birth year yet took keyboard music in wildly different directions. Lavinia Meijer's Unfolding Lines celebrates this extraordinary trifecta, bringing these Baroque masters together in a programme of preludes, fugues, sonatas, and variations – performed, remarkably, on solo harp.

Jessie J has had a tough year. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer on April 3, 2025, just ahead of releasing new material, she fought the battle with real optimism and determination. If the cancer battle were not enough, she was also in a car crash that led to severe neck and back pain.