“This distinctive recording of Mozart’s last great work can claim to be unique,” announces a foreword to the booklet. Its USP, if you like, is the use not only of a choir of boys and men but of soloists drawn from the choir itself, rather than a row of operatic singers bussed (or jetted) in for the occasion. The two boy soloists acquit themselves admirably, with barely a hint of vulnerability in exposed moments such as the "Te decet hymnus" or the "Recordare", and combine well with the two men to create a more truthfully ìecclesiasticalî sound than is often the case with starrier projects. The choir is full-throated and admirably secure.

The interpretation is straight down the line, the edition used the "traditional" Sussmayr completion. Tempi are apposite, the "Dies irae" and "Confutatis" held back a touch to allow all the voices to be heard in the busy textures. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment provide adequate accompaniment, the trombones shining especially in moments such as the "Confutatis" and the Offertory, although perhaps the tenor trombonist may have liked a retake of the solo that opens the "Tuba mirum". The church acoustic allows good separation of parts but, along with the softer-grained soloists, results in the slight loss of incisiveness of attack that naturally goes with such territory. This recording is valuable in itself as possibly the only one (as claimed – certainly one among very few) with boy and choral-scholar soloists. The four of them are deliberately named above, as Novum meanly omits them from the exterior of its otherwise comprehensive packaging.