On track: Mass arises in enlightening style

With frankly operatic solos alongside noble orchestral and choral writing, Mozart's C minor Mass is unique in the composer's output.

A Naive recording has the choir Accentus and La Chambre Philharmonique Orchestra throwing new light on a work some may know from Raymond Leppard's 1974 recording with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Emmanuel Krivine conducts with authority and the Naive engineers let the period instruments bloom, especially when the Gratias explores the wilder end of that sonic spectrum.

A more delicate filigree of sound emerges when woodwind soloists surround French soprano Sandrine Piau in her Incarnatus.

While the exemplary Accentus provides unity, some might find Piau and Anne-Lise Sollied less immediate than mainstream soloists, but it is easy to be won over.

Last month, Hilary Hahn and Natalie Zhu released their exquisite collection of Mozart violin and piano sonatas on Deutsche Grammophon.

Meanwhile, Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper are already on to their second set for Channel Classics, with a radically different take on the works.

Don't expect delicate watercolour experiences here. Podger's Baroque violin is vehement in tone and combines with Cooper's fortepiano for some truly gutsy allegros.

There are even moments in K481 when you might swear the violin is snarling.

For an earthier Mozart, with a gloriously spacious recording, this is the disc to search out. If you're smitten, Volume 1 is already available, and at least another two or three discs must surely be in the pipeline.

I never was a Jacques Loussier fan, from his earliest tamperings with Bach. What he now manages to do to two defenceless Mozart Piano Concertos must be heard to be believed.

One cries out for woodwind colours, and teeth clench at harmonic liberties.

Too often Andre Arpino's drumkit is downright disorienting and a phone-in string orchestra doesn't help, either.

Although undeniably clever, the cocktail harmony vulgarities and slick patternings push the whole project closer to James Last than Uri Caine, although lovers of bizarre Mozartiana might well investigate to their profit and amusement.

* Mozart, Mass in C minor (Naive V 5043);
Mozart, Violin Sonatas Volume 2 (Channel Classics 22805)
Jacques Loussier Trio, Mozart Piano Concertos (Telarc 83628); all available through Elite Imports