Jordi Savall has recorded Mozart’s Requiem before, in 1991, when everybody and his dog was doing so. That recording wasn’t greeted with much enthusiasm – Stanley Sadie thought it ‘[no] more than a superficial account of the work’ – but it has remained in the catalogue, thanks not least to reissues both on its original label and more recently on Savall’s own.

The new recording, while not markedly different in matters of interpretation, could certainly not be described as superficial. Tempos have barely altered three decades on but the performance is tauter, with what seemed ‘jaunty’ to SS now put over with an injection of urgency. That’s not a matter of speed but of attack and coordination. Historically informed playing techniques (and standards) have undergone a revolution over this period and what audibly defeated those pioneers during the last-but-one Mozart year is now tackled with far greater fluency. SS admired the choral singing on the old recording, and that quality is reprised here; the solo singing, though, is vastly improved, the quartet blending well, Rachel Redmond a straight-toned soprano, not far from the style of the late Montserrat Figueras. Some may find Manuel Walser’s baritone somewhat on the light side, too perfunctory for the announcement of the Last Trump.

Once again, the ‘Rex tremendae’ is taken almost at a jig tempo, Mozart’s crotchet exclamations of ‘Rex’ sung as quavers. The ‘Agnus Dei’ is taken at a fairly leaden plod as in 1991 but the ‘Recordare’ and ‘Benedictus’ flow more persuasively in the new recording. The version used is predominantly the traditional Süssmayr completion, with details borrowed from the 1971 Beyer edition: look out for touches such as modified brass in the ‘Dies irae’, wind in the ‘Domine’ and strings in the ‘Hostias’. The old recording came in at just over three quarters of an hour and was coupled with the Masonic Funeral Music. Only half a minute has been shaved off the Requiem in the new version but there is no coupling.