Iconoclastic Franco-Russian conductor Emmanuel Krivine has been under-represented on disc, so the appearance of his new recording of Mozart's Mass in C Minor is something of an event. It won't, however, be to all tastes. In place of the sumptuous majesty and high drama preferred by many interpreters, Krivine offers a hard-edged reading, almost Bach-like in both its devotional austerity and its emphasis on the score's complex counterpoint.

Despite a reverberant recording, made in the Montpellier Opera House, the choral singing and playing - from Accentus and Krivine's newly founded La Chambre Philharmonique - are admirably clear, although the severity of the orchestral sound will faze some. The all-important soprano soloists are ethereal Sandrine Piau and warmer-voiced Anne-Lise Sollied.