The story that Mozart’s unfinished Requiem was completed after his death by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766-1803) must be one of the most famous in music history. There are scholars who claim that Süssmayr made a pretty poor job of it, but this attractively presented disc introduces a fresh reason to persist with Süssmayr’s solution. Conductors Anton Armstrong and Andreas Delfs contrast the most familiar arrangement of the most famous of all Requiems with the world premiere recording of Süssmayr’s setting, in German, rediscovered at a Benedictine monastery near Linz.

With the reputations of Hasse, Michael Haydn and Hummel all restored by excellent recent recordings of major sacred works, can this do the same for Süssmayr? Well, no. Süssmayr’s music strengthens arguments that he possessed only modest imagination despite his competent ability. Of course his efforts to complete Mozart’s masterpiece are more authentic and closer to the composer’s own world than alternative modern editions by, for example, Duncan Druce (recorded by Norrington) or Richard Maunder (recorded by Hogwood). But perfunctory instrumental textures, unadventurous harmonisation and clumsy, conventional melodies confirm Süssmayr’s manifest inferiority to his teacher.

The performances are neatly delivered. The St Olaf Choir are well-disciplined and produce ample drama in the ‘Rex tremendae’, even if the ‘Confutatis’ is a little woolly. The orchestras are efficient, with particularly plangent basset-horns and resonant trombones in the ‘Introit’. The solo quartet makes heavy weather of the ‘Recordare’, although I was impressed with Eric Owens’s dark powerful timbre in the ‘Tuba mirum’. The fascination of what Süssmayr’s own music sounds like will make this disc rewarding for inquisitive Mozartians but I suspect it will not spark off a Süssmayr revival.