The Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO) and Harmonia Mundi have announced a new long-term recording partnership, launching with three releases led by conductors Pablo Heras-Casado, Jakob Lehmann and Christophe Rousset.

The partnership launches in October 2026 with Rousset conducting the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in Händel’s “Messiah,” recorded during a European tour last year. The release features soprano Ana Vieira Leite, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, tenor Andrew Staples and bass-baritone William Thomas.

This autumn, Rousset will lead the same forces on a European and South American tour of Händel’s “Theodora,” which will be recorded at the Sohmen Concert Hall at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford. Future releases under Rousset will include further Händel oratorios and instrumental works.

“With this partnership we are bringing together two organisations that care about the same things: artistic excellence, curiosity, long-term relationships with artists, and recordings that are documents of living musical journeys,” said MCO General Director Rosa Solinas, per an official press release. “Now, with this collaboration, we are delighted to add harmonia mundi’s extraordinary expertise, international reach and a distinguished history of period-instrument recordings.”

Lehmann, whom MCO has engaged as its specialist in Rossini, will contribute recordings of the composer’s sacred works, beginning with the “Stabat Mater,” recorded last year, and the “Petite Messe Solennelle” later this year. There will also be a recording of the “Messa di Gloria.”

Heras-Casado will lead the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in a Schubert series. Works to be toured and recorded include the Mass in E flat, Symphony No. 9 and the incidental music from “Rosamunde.”

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