Well. I’m not sure whether I should be reviewing this unusual DVD for Gramophone or for Horse & Hound. In 1785 Mozart was commissioned to compose a piece for a Viennese charity. Pressed for time, he adapted the Kyrie and Gloria of his unfinished Mass in C minor, K427, to an Italian text possibly written by da Ponte; the only new music consisted of two arias and an accompanied ‘cadenza’ towards the end. The cantata was performed in the Burgtheater on March 13 and 15. The soloists included Caterina Cavalieri and Valentin Adamberger, who had taken part in the first performances of Die Entführung three years earlier: the Allegro of ‘Tra l’oscure’ is another concession to Cavalieri’s ‘flexible throat’ (Mozart’s words), and ‘A te, fra tanto affanni’ is first cousin to Belmonte’s ‘Wenn der Freude Tränen fliessen’.

So much for the background. But you want to hear about the horses, don’t you? Some readers will have attended a morning session at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, where the Lipizzaners are put through their paces to a recording of Strauss waltzes and the like. This is a live, upmarket version from the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg. The musicians are placed in the three tiers of arcades; the conductor is in the arena, in which the horses prance, trot and canter. It is a miracle of coordination. The drawback is the selective eye of the camera. Twelve horses and riders take their bows, but I could never count more than eight together in the performance. Sometimes a correlation between humans and beasts can be discerned, sometimes not. The soprano duet is matched by two greys; two groups of four horses wheel around in the double chorus. But you can’t tell if the horses enter in turn in the fugal Terzetto; they don’t in the fugal last chorus. The musical performance is good, the equine ballet is graceful. But why Davide penitente, particularly? Search me.