There hasn’t exactly been a deluge of new CD releases to mark the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death, so a new disc of his Messa di Gloria is welcome. It comes from Bavarian forces: the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Chorus under Croatian conductor Ivan Repušić, caught in concert last June.

The misleadingly titled Messa di Gloria – strictly speaking it’s the full liturgy – was composed as a graduation exercise from the Istituto Musicale Pacini, at a time when it seemed that Puccini was heading for a career as a church musician. It was premiered in Lucca in July 1880 but Puccini never published the full manuscript, and it wasn’t performed again until 1952.

It’s a pleasing work, around 45 minutes in length, exuberant and melodic, even if some of the writing is workaday. Early Puccini occasionally contains seeds that come to fruition in later works (the reasonably well known Capriccio sinfonico of 1883 has a snippet that he later used to launch La bohème). From the Mass, the Kyrie found its way into his opera Edgar, while the jaunty theme of the Agnus Dei will be familiar, sung by the Madrigal Singer in Act 2 of Manon Lescaut.

The bulk of the writing is for chorus, and the Bavarian Radio Chorus is one of Germany’s finest, here in splendid voice, particularly in the bouncy ‘Gloria in excelsis’. Alas, they are often shrouded in the reverberant acoustics of the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Munich, a modernist building but sounding as boomy as a Gothic cathedral. Repušić sets lively tempos but some detail gets lost on the way. Listen to Antonio Pappano with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for greater clarity and a performance with more punch.

The work calls for two soloists. Baritone George Petean is efficient in his brief opportunities, but tenor Tomislav MuŽek is strained and his intonation wavers, no match for the open, sunny sound of Roberto Alagna for Pappano.

Both Repušić and Pappano programme the same two other early works: the meaty Preludio sinfonico, composed by Puccini for his final exam at Milan Conservatory in 1882; and the delicious string quartet morsel Crisantemi (‘Chrysanthemums’), here arranged for string orchestra by Lucas Drew. They make an enjoyable enough postlude to the Mass, but Pappano is to be preferred on all counts.