Lorin Maazel made his Proms debut with this work back in 1969, the first live performance of the score that I heard. One of the conductor’s two previous recordings of the score, both DVDs, was given with his own Symphonica Toscanini in Venice in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of the maestro’s death. Richard Osborne (A/09) called it ‘measured, occasionally brilliant, sometimes moving’, a result we might expect from this well-organised musician, more German- than Italian-trained. Recorded at Munich concerts in 2014 a few months before the conductor’s death, Maazel’s reading now sounds more of a piece than in 2007. As a general indication of intent, the stopwatch shows that he was getting slower, his ‘Requiem and Kyrie’ and the ‘Libera me’ now outlasting de Sabata’s (the former section now takes three minutes more than Toscanini in 1940) and even rivalling the transcendental non-impetus of Celibidache’s performance with these same forces. Yet overall this does not herald an unidiomatic north-of-the-Alps attempt to make sacred drama more oratorio-like; rather it presages a degree of commitment from the performers which is actually quite nakedly emotional.

That’s maybe a rare phenomenon from the sometime Maazel of old, but not here where – in, for example, the (tricky) Sequence through ‘Dies irae’ to ‘Lacrymosa’ – he has found a happy golden mean of pace and colour. The interest in ferreting out (and getting right) little details which always marked his readings of early-20th-century music – and perhaps encouraged the composing ventures of his later years – is put to good use here in his evident enjoyment of the soprano’s long-held ‘Sed’ (‘but’) calling for Michael to show the holy light in the quartet of the ‘Offertorio’, and the inventively varied string patterns with which Verdi punctuated section ends.

The solo quartet settle down into a solid, fluent team. Harteros and Barcellona are almost old hands at recording this work now; at first the mezzo’s words are not ideally clear nor the soprano’s soft pianissimos ideally centred, but they bring off the ‘Agnus Dei’ with some passion (and Harteros the ‘Libera me’). Tenor Wookyung Kim relaxes too into more cooperative dynamics; bass Georg Zeppenfeld is assured throughout. Andreas Herrmann’s chorus, especially the basses, demonstrate ideal consistency and strength. This new interpretation is not going to annihilate competition of the order of Toscanini, Muti, Bernstein and Gardiner – or the recent rivals from down the road under Jansons (BR-Klassik, ArtHaus, 1/15) – but it’s a finely worked ave atque vale from its chief.