Karsten Storck is not a name I’ve previously encountered in the music of Bruckner but this performance of the F minor Mass is as fine as any I’ve heard. So supreme a work of art is Bruckner’s third and final Mass that it’s difficult to believe its composition predates not only Symphonies Nos 2 9 but also the unnumbered Symphony in D minor. Storck’s performance communicates the greatness and sublimity of the music with remarkable conviction, leaving one profoundly moved and impressed anew at the composer’s achievement. The Mainz Cathedral Choir, of which Storck became director in 2012, sing with fluency and eloquence throughout, bringing jubilation to the Gloria, stealing in ethereally at the start of the Sanctus and rising to passionate incandescence in the final section of the Agnus Dei.

There are numerous felicities in the orchestral playing too, including first-rate solo contributions from violin and viola in the Credo (the players Susanne Stoodt and Silke Volk rightly credited in the booklet note) as well as from woodwinds, horn and timpani. Many conductors match the yearningly expressive playing that Storck summons from the cellos at the start of the Benedictus but it’s rare for the passage scored for first and second violins commencing at bar 66 (4'40") in the same movement to sound as profound and searching as it does here. Like a number of other conductors, including Jochum and Welser-Möst, Storck makes use of an organ to supplement tutti passages, an addition sanctioned with the words ad libitum in the Bruckner Gesamtausgabe (Complete Edition). Storck’s deployment of the organ is especially imaginative and sensitive in the latter half of the Benedictus, where the additional tone colour brings extra radiance to the setting. The four solo vocalists are also excellent, although Jutta Hörl’s soprano takes a while to settle in the opening Kyrie.

The recording copes remarkably well with the extended reverberation of Mainz Cathedral, the clear and weighty sound offering an immersive experience uninterrupted by audience noise. Although not indicated in the booklet note, Storck uses the familiar 1893 version of the Mass, incorporating Bruckner’s final amendments to a masterpiece originally written 25 years earlier.