Our June Recording of the Month is Midsummer Dreams, a sparkling disc of Mendelssohn and Beethoven by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra under conductor Rachael Beesley (ARCO ARCOCD004).

“This recording is a masterclass in historically informed performance (HIP), offering listeners an electrifying, visceral experience that transports them back to a richly imagined 19th-century sound world,” writes Will Yeoman in a glowing review. “These thrilling performances, captured live, of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, the Scottish, are among the finest and most exciting I’ve heard.”

Beesley pays attention throughout to expressive techniques such as rubato, portamento and rhetorical phrasing, sculpting performances that are both stylistically rigorous and emotionally engaging while the orchestra responds with palpable enthusiasm. “The Overture shimmers with sparkling energy, the opening chords delivered with an ethereal precision, setting an enchanting tone for the fairy-tale narrative to follow,” Yeoman continues, while the conversational interplay between orchestral sections in all three works bears comparison with the very finest performances on disc. Outstanding.

A similar memento of a special occasion is the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performance of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony that celebrated the reopening of...