The three recordings listed above for comparison represent a fairly wide range of approaches to the great work, and with all three being so highly recommendable, each in their way, it is very doubtful whether this new one has a distinctive claim of its own. It also suffers from one clear disadvantage (a familiar one) in the tone of the Viennese sopranos, which catches the ear from the start and remains a somewhat edgy presence throughout.
Still, the performance is not lacking in devotion, energy and quite often beauty. At its best in the Credo, it communicates a genuine sense of joy. The Gloria's ''Cum Sancto Spiritu'' with its alla breve fugue subject avoids the dangers of a plodding heaviness and a stabbing overemphasis: there is care over the dynamics, certainly, but a decisive strength of spirit too. In this, and in much more, we are aware of the conductor's identity, and yet no more obtrusively than with Schreier and Gardiner (both on Philips). Another strength is the presence of von Otter among the soloists: remarkable too that a mezzo should be able to undertake a part that usually goes to a soprano, and in which she brings off brilliantly those bars in the ''Domine Deus'' where one voice follows the other on the high notes in blissful emulation. Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, best when her silvery tone is not under too much pressure, is well suited to the ''Et incarnatus est'', and it is good to hear Uwe Heilmann singing his runs so evenly in the ''Quoniam'' trio.
What I imagine will be missed by listeners who know and like the Gardiner or Schreier recordings is a quality which for an earlier generation was pre-eminently associated with Solti himself. Hear, for instance, Schreier's almost ruthless way with the ''Qui tollis''; or in the opening bars of the Kyrie contrast his very deliberate 'policy' decision with Solti's now almost romantic-sounding care for shades and mouldings. If this rather warmer approach, with larger forces, is what the listener wants, then the Abbado/Sony Classical will probably suit and be found preferable. His recording also shares with Solti's the merit of having the choir well forward in the recording balance, but with his Berlin singers, as against Solti's Viennese, the advantage is rather less equivocal.'