"An amalgam of prayer and dance that creeps into your soul and just won't let you go," was how Roger Norrington described the B Minor Mass, the work chosen to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Bach's death on July 28 1750. The performance began at the actual hour of his passing, and was touchingly preceded by the Motet Lieber Herr Gott, Wecke Uns Auf, written by his second cousin Johann Christoph, and believed to have been sung at Bach's funeral.

A sense of deep devotional and memorial weight hung over the evening - but did Norrington, conducting the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, do the B Minor justice? Sadly, not quite, in my opinion, though it should be added that no single interpretation can capture every facet of what many consider to be the greatest score by the greatest of all composers.

Norrington's approach is reverential. "Prayer" was much in evidence "Dance" less so, though there was a translucent buoyancy and the instrumental obbligati that seem to twine round the solo singers. What one missed was the majesty, the exultation.

The soloists were at times less than ideally matched. Dominique Labelle's flawless crystalline soprano didn't quite blend with the earthier mezzo of Annette Markert, though both voices are fabulous. The base line lies a fraction low for the usually excellent Alastair Miles. Mark Padmore, beautiful in Bach, phrased the tenor solos with exquisite finesse, while the starry, cult counter-tenor, David Daniels brought a whiff of unearthly, pagan sweetness to proceedings.