This concert was a fine example of the Proms at their very best. The hall and the arena were packed and the atmosphere buzzing for what Hubert Parry (and others) deemed “the mightiest choral work ever written”. And given the quality of this performance it’s hard to disagree with such high praise.

The layout was interesting. The choir was sitting stage left tucked intimately behind the orchestra – almost among it. The orchestra was arranged obliquely stage right so that players were half facing the singers. Soloists were seated in front of the choir but came forward to sing. John Butt was right at the front directing from the harpsichord. It was all very cohesive.

I really liked the concept of instruments with solo or group spots standing up to play them and there was a very special moment when leader Huw Daniel stood to play Laudamus Te with soprano Mary Bevan, There was a real sense of collaborative duet with lots of eye contact and body language between the two of them. At other times all the flutes stood and the Benedictus sung by tenor Guy Cutting with Lisa Beznosiuk on solo flute was another high spot: sweetly lyrical and sung with gentle, soulful passion. And of course this is OAE so we heard wooden flutes, spikily dry, hard sticks on shallow timps, strings played with Baroque bows and all the rest of it. I think Bach would have been pretty pleased.

The choir sound was magnificent throughout (and I admired their immaculately choreographed silent stands and sits). There was some really close blending, every detail lovingly placed in Et Incarnatus, for example. What magic Bach can weaver with just a descending minor arpeggio and parts entering one by one.

Like, I suspect, many other audience members, I was puzzled at the choir’s trooping off stage at the end of the Credo but we soon saw why. They returned, regrouped so that the basses were along the back with other parts layered up from the sopranos at the front. It made for an especially rich sound in the Sanctus, arguably the climax of the whole work.

For me though the most moving part came at the end first with counter tenor Iestyn Davies singing Agnus Dei. The way he sustained those long notes and phrases was spine-tingling. And then, still fresh after nearly two hours and with no sign whatever of flagging, the choir delivered Dona Nobis Pacem making sure that we heard every nuance of Bach’s contrapuntal alchemy – reaching glorious, jaw-dropping resolution in the timp work in the final bars,

Even for someone like me, who has long since jettisoned Christian theology and its trappings, listening to this work performed as well as this was a profoundly spiritual experience. Yes, the elderly composer used a fair amount of material that he’d already used elsewhere but who cares? An achievement like this is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Susan Elkin