Berlioz is credited with assembling no fewer than 900 performers for the first performance of his Te Deum in Paris in 1855. This live performance from a concert celebrating the Dresden Staatskapelle's 250th anniversary cannot match that scale at 400 performers but by today's standards that is an enormous body, thrillingly caught in this radio recording. Davis's 1969 recording with LSO forces for Philips remains impressive but the sheer weight of sound on the new version is very much in its favour, particularly when the live performance adds to the electricity.

The 1969 version is marginally clearer, set in a smaller acoustic, but the radio sound in a spacious setting is still full of detail. Not only are the big climaxes given extra punch, as on the words in the second movement, “Tibi omnes Christe rex gloriae” (“For thou art the King of Glory, O Christ”) but in the hushed passages, with such a big body of singers - three adult and two children's choirs - the intense atmosphere is impressive. One can sense the weight in reserve. Equally impressive is the antiphony of organ and brass in the final section, “Judex crederis”, with its triple time echoing the tolling of bells.

It is fascinating to find that against 1969 Davis is faster. As he has grown older his interpretations have quite often broadened but here the “Te Deum” and “Judex crederis” are much faster. The tenor solo in the fifth section finds Stuart Neill most impressive, firm and steady with crystal clear diction.

In music by Davis's other favourite composer, Mozart, it might prove disconcerting that the Kyrie is treated almost as though it were by Berlioz, a massive celebration such as I have not heard in Mozart on disc for many years.