The French countertenor turned conductor Raphaël Pichon, born in 1984, makes what his compatriots must consider a somewhat belated New York debut. And they may be frowning that his superb period ensemble Pygmalion has been left at home while he guests with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Ah, well. But the program Mein Traum (My Dream) is one not to be missed. Named after an enigmatic text Franz Schubert set down upon waking one morning in 1822, it strings together mesmerizing but little-known arias by Schubert, Weber, and Schumann, lieder of Schubert in magnificent orchestral arrangements, and detached movements from Schubert symphonies that somehow sequenced seamlessly. The superb French baritone Stéphane Degout, authoritative in many styles, is the principal soloist on harmonia mundi’s CD of Mein Traum, as he was at the Cité de la Musique in the fall of 2022—an event that held an enraptured audience cheering for a solid quarter hour, without a soul heading for the exits. His soulful German colleague Christian Gerharer, who takes over at Carnegie Hall, is no shabby alternate, but it’s a fact of life that New Yorkers tend to bolt pretty quickly. —Matthew Gurewitsch