Rossini’s Stabat mater is one of the glories of the composer’s output from his long post-retirement phrase. Its composition spanned a decade. Commissioned by the Archdeacon of Madrid, Manuel Fernández Varela, in 1831, Rossini immediately set to work, but ill health intervened and he asked Giovanni Tadolini, in his employment at the Théâtre-Italien, to compose the remaining movements to ensure he met Varela’s deadline. In the event, the work wasn’t performed until Good Friday 1833. After Varela’s death the following year, the manuscript was sold to a Parisian publisher in 1841, leading the furious Rossini to write his own music to replace Tadolini’s settings. It’s a glorious opus – Rossini wearing religious garb, although one can still detect the composer’s unmistakably operatic fingerprints in the vocal writing.

It’s been a lucky work on disc, with a good number of very fine recordings. They are joined by this new account from the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Gustavo Gimeno on Harmonia Mundi. Gimeno offers a steady hand on the tiller, steering something of a middle line between the speedy Riccardo Chailly (with the Concertgebouw on Decca) and the more luxuriant Antonio Pappano (with his Santa Cecilia orchestra on Warner). The Luxembourgers play with style, and crisp tempos in the ‘Pro peccatis’ and the ‘Sancta mater’ work well. Gimeno is aided by some terrific singing by the Wiener Singverein. They are recorded quite closely, but no complaints here when the singing is so strong – the ‘Inflammatus’ is particularly stirring.

Indeed, the choral contributions are the best thing about the disc – as indeed they were in Gimeno’s recording of Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle (Pentatone, 9/19) – for the vocal performances are really rather mixed, even if the line-up looks strong on paper. René Barbera has a bright tenor but sounds tight at the top. Carlo Lepore – a seasoned Rossinian basso buffo – is laboured in the ‘Pro peccatis’ and doesn’t really have the bottom notes required. His diction is terrific, though. Maria Agresta and Daniela Barcellona are both rather unsteady, with heavy vibrato and even a few tuning issues in their ‘Quis est homo’ duet. Barcellona has impressed me many times in the opera house but her top notes here sound umcomfortably forced. Pappano and Chailly field better vocal quartets, Barbara Frittoli and Sonia Ganassi especially lovely for Chailly, while Lawrence Brownlee is sheer class for Pappano.