Amid a swathe of desirable radio recordings from Günter Wand’s long years as Kapellmeister in Cologne, these 1952‑53 Mozart and Schubert performances strike me as a case of misplaced piety. Wand brings a certain sturdy integrity to the Coronation Mass. Yet my 21st-century ears quickly tired of the quavery, soubrettish soprano soloist (allotted a starring role in this Mass) and the beefy, undifferentiated choral textures, with that matronly soprano wobble that was virtually de rigueur half a century ago. The pinched tone of the Cologne oboists is a further trial. The whole, dated performance is epitomised by the stolidly chugging Credo – no lift to the rhythms, no shaping of the choral lines, no joy – and a Benedictus that plods along at a dreary Andante (Mozart marked it Allegretto, implying a measure of lightness and grace), with the soprano and the unalluring tenor consistently drowning out their colleagues.

Soprano Margot Guilleaume also turns up, shrill and tremulous as ever, in Schubert’s rarely heard youthful setting of Klopstock’s German paraphrase of the Stabat mater. Worse still, she hogs the microphone in the Haydnesque duet with Richard Holm, whose trim, well schooled tenor is the prime source of pleasure in this routine performance. The Cologne chorus are as flabby here as in the Mozart; and Wand’s sober direction does nothing to alleviate the music’s intermittent stiffness and formality, above all in the two fugal movements where the 19-year-old composer sought to display his mastery of so-called “species” counterpoint. The remastered mono sound is reasonable for the period, with a decent choral-orchestral balance. But this really is one for Wand completists only.