This is the fourth Gielen-directed Missa solemnis to appear on record; not the most recent – a Capriccio release of a 2006 concert with the Luxembourg Philharmonic – but by some way the most readily available (the first, live from Frankfurt, never made it beyond LP) and the most satisfactorily engineered (the third, again live, attempts to counteract the acoustic of a Swabian Baroque church with multi-miking that lays bare the rough edges of the SWF orchestra’s playing).

The present issue enjoys several advantages over its predecessors: the Musikverein acoustic under studio conditions, for one, sumptuously captured by Austrian radio engineers. Another is the bite of the Wiener Singverein’s singing, considerably keener and better focused than on their recordings under Karajan, even if the ‘Et vitam venturi’ fugue still places the sopranos under uncomfortable strain. Still more in its favour, the reading feels thoroughly run in by all concerned.

Then there’s the reading itself, however, broadly common to all four recordings: implacable as Gielen could be when he got the bit between his teeth, charcoal-suited even in the Sanctus/Benedictus and somewhat surprising from the conductor who teased out mordant humour from unexpected corners of the symphonies. Rapture, quiet or abandoned, is in short supply, even from the leader of the ORF SO in his Benedictus soliloquy. Once past a steady but rhythmically inert Kyrie, the regimented instrumental pulse and strident choral accents, buttressed by unyielding timpani, make heavy weather of the forte verses in the Gloria and Credo.

The vocal soloists sound better apart than together – the vibrato of Hargan and Lipovšek is not always steady or harmonious – and perhaps it’s just as well that Gielen takes the old-fashioned option of assigning the ‘Osanna’ fugue in the Sanctus to the chorus. For listeners inclined towards a Romantically scaled, Viennese Missa solemnis, the DG versions led by Böhm (6/75) and Levine (11/92) still have much to offer, not least impetus without relentless emphasis and beautifully integrated solo quartets.