The coupling is a time-honoured one: two of Mozart’s best-loved church works from the end of his Salzburg career. No wonder choirs love to sing them – and the aria ‘Laudate Dominum’ in the Vespers setting surely qualifies for ‘greatest hit’ status. Mozartians will be excited to hear a solo quartet led by the soprano Sandrine Piau in this music, and by the high-class contributions of Laurence Equilbey’s own crack chamber choir Accentus and the newly formed period-instrument Insula Orchestra.

The problem is the acoustic. From the off, the choir’s sound is recessed, while the soloists are spotlit to the extent of obscuring magical features such as the muted violin arabesques in the ‘Incarnatus’ of the Mass’s Credo. The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Saint-Omer would appear to be quite a big space, although I have no idea how it compares with Salzburg Cathedral; nevertheless, the timpani boom rather, especially in the Credo, and the length of decay means that sudden changes of dynamic are obscured.

It’s a great shame that a product of such class is compromised for want of slightly cannier miking. For the Mass, the greater clarity of Peter Neumann’s Cologne recording – my overall choice in a Gramophone Collection (11/06) – remains preferable. For the Solemn Vespers, a recording such as Harnoncourt’s, which this performance somewhat resembles, should suffice. One other point: there is no pocket for the booklet, which thus falls out every time you pick up the disc.