Brahms believed that Hans von Bülow ‘disgraced himself for all time’ by lampooning this work as ‘opera in church clothing’. Nonetheless, at least on disc, there do seem to have been three basic kinds of performances of ‘the Mass’, as Verdi called it – (1) the operatic, or those with a good sense of theatre; (2) the ‘classical’, often those aiming not to be (1); and (3) The Big Occasion General Musikdirektor-on-duty approach, ie wanting to be at an imaginary Alexandra Palace with a choir of many hundreds using the text in a stiff, Victorian manner. I’d put the Toscaninis, Muti/Philharmonia and Bernstein into category (1), the Giulinis, Pappano and Colin Davis into (2) and the Karajans (with the exception of some of the early Zadek/Christoff recording) into (3).

You may imagine Jansons coming to the work under category (3) in his well-set career sequence of perform/record major repertoire. But, although he has done little opera, his evident love of musical drama takes him often into category (1). Like many of those performances (and completely opposite to, say, Giulini or Davis), his Requiem is a series of coups d’état in which the returns of the actual ‘Dies irae’ or the launch of ‘Rex tremendae majestatis’ are exciting aural shocks. He also devotes much time to enjoying slow quiet endings of movements for emotional effect. I don’t know whether Jansons is any more of a strict church believer than Verdi was but he represents wholeheartedly the text and its inspiration.

The five days’ live work in Munich from which the CD is drawn and the concert in Vienna’s Musikverein (DVD) are separated by some days. Taking the temperature of the patient on the road, so to speak, is a smart idea in an age where major concert programmes tour as much as stage productions. In Vienna the soloists in particular are listening to each other better (the women in the ‘Recordare’), the tenor is pushing less and the bass sounds happier with his vocal role of God-like chastiser. It’s also clearer seeing her that Prudenskaja’s pressing on the mezzo’s musical line is for dramatic effect. The choir (prepared by Michael Gläser) is superb from its quiet but very clear beginning onwards. The DVD is the version to go for from this pair of releases. It’s atmospherically filmed without encompassing an architectural tour of the venue and points intelligently to vocal and instrumental leads.

This new interpretation is both exciting and moving. From the huge list of audio and visual alternatives don’t forget the ‘official’ NBC Toscanini, the Muti/Philharmonia (whose thumping ‘Dies irae’ was a close rival), the Bernstein/LSO adventure (intriguing soloists) or the fiery Gardiner/ORR (orchestral detail well caught), and hope someone will release the Colin Davis takeover Prom that served to honour both Solti and Princess Diana.