Mozart’s Mass No 5 in G (supposedly from 1773) sports an alarmingly scientific compound Köchel number due to some doubt over its authorship. There is a copy of the manuscript with Mozart’s own corrections and pagination but the work borrows dance tunes from a ballet called Le gelosie del serraglio by Joseph Starzer: none of Mozart’s other church music follows this practice, although it wasn’t uncommon at the time (there are Masses compiled from Mozart’s later operas, for example). K140 proceeds amiably enough, in a style typical of similar works by Mozart and his contemporaries, and it’s all over in a little over 16 minutes – terse even by the standards of Salzburg’s sacred music.

The Dominicus Mass is on a different scale altogether. Composed in 1769 for the first Mass to be celebrated by the Mozarts’ family friend Cajetan Hagenauer – who adopted Dominicus as his ordination name – it boasts a full complement of pairs of oboes (piquantly switching to flutes in places) and horns, a quartet of trumpets and timpani. This is where Mozart’s sacred-music DNA begins to become evident: over more than 40 minutes, we hear the range of choruses and aria-like sections that would become the building blocks of his later, greater sacred music. Scurrying strings are reminiscent of the Coronation Mass of a decade later, while a churning ‘Gratias’, a louring G minor ‘Qui tollis’ and a full-on fugue for ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’ reveal the style that would come to full fruition in the C minor Mass of 1782/83.

The F major Mass No 6 of 1774 returns to the concentrated Missa brevis style of so much of Mozart’s Salzburg sacred output. One of his most appealing works of this type, it boasts a far greater degree of thematic integration and a marked preponderance of counterpoint in comparison to earlier works. Originally scored for the ‘Salzburg church trio’ accompaniment of violins (no violas) and bass, Mozart later contrived trumpet parts to make it suitable for grander celebrations – those at which the Archbishop was present. These parts tend to emphasise the dominant over the tonic, but that’s the nature of instruments pitched in C in a work in F.

Once again Christoph Poppen and his Cologne forces acquit themselves well in this repertoire. Elsewhere in town, Peter Neumann’s players are more assertive in his set of the complete Masses, although he opts for the trumpet-less version of K192; Harnoncourt includes the trumpets in his provocative, highly reactive reading. Those collecting this series need not hesitate, and those exploring may be assured of the sympathy and stylistic awareness of Poppen and his singers and players.