I vividly recall the first time I heard the great (albeit brief) Alleluia Duet at the close of Tableau 6 of Mathis der Maler (1933 35). I had located a full score of the opera and, armed with my recently bought EMI LPs, took the afternoon off work to do nothing but listen. The Alleluias, familiar in part from the climax of the purely orchestral Mathis der Maler Symphony, made an enormous impression with the vocal lines added. The duet is the emotional apex of Hindemith’s wonderful opera, encapsulating the sense of victory over adversity, achievement in the teeth of struggle – in crystallising Mathis’s ideas for his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece – and the celebration of the bond between the two principal characters. Fischer-Dieskau and James King were magnificent then and remain so in Warner’s reissue of Rafael Kubelík’s original recording. Any subsequent pair must be measured against that benchmark.

Of course, the comparison is not entirely fair, as the Kubelík was recorded in ideal studio conditions in Munich’s Herkulessaal. This newcomer was recorded live in December 2012 in the Theater an der Wien (a DVD of the same production made at about the same time has been issued by Naxos). The circumstances of a live performance (even when a composite, as here, of two separate performances) will allow for minor infelicities on the one hand but often have gains in immediacy and intensity. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra, playing here in the pit, do not achieve the same richness of tone as Kubelík’s Bavarians, nor, quite, the lightness of texture Gerd Albrecht achieved for Wergo. Some of Bertrand de Billy’s tempos seem a little restrained but he is generally on the mark in the big moments. Sad to say, though, Wolfgang Koch and Kurt Streit’s Alleluia Duet does disappoint a little, not quite strong enough to bear the emotional heft of the three-hour opera. Streit’s strained vibrato at climactic moments is, to my ears, distracting and, ironically, robs these moments of their power. (A shame, as overall his interpretation of the conflicted Cardinal Albrecht is as commandingly drawn as Protschka on Wergo and, for the most part, nicely sung.) Curiously, this moment sounds more secure in Naxos’s DVD version, but whether due to its being a different take or a better sound balance I cannot say.

That said, there is much to admire in this new performance. Wolfgang Koch makes a fine Mathis, less stolid than was Hermann for Albrecht, and – dramatically – as acute as Fischer-Dieskau. The other principals acquit themselves very well, particularly Raymond Very as the peasant leader Schwalb and the sweet-toned Katerina Tretyakova as his daughter, Regina. (She really does sound, in the early scene in the monastery when washing herself, for once like a young girl.) I initially warmed less to Manuela Uhl’s Ursula (also with an uncomfortable vibrato at times), though she is wonderfully tender in the final scene. The Slovak Philharmonic Choir sing with gusto but, again, are disadvantaged by comparisons with both choruses in the studio recordings.

Ultimately, this is a strong recording of a fine production. Capriccio’s sound and production values are generally good, although the English translations of the booklet note and libretto are sub-optimal.