"The gates of Heaven close against a perverse race that cries for peace but makes war" - that is how Colin Davis describes the final bars of the Missa Solemnis, Beethoven's vast meditation on both the grandeur of God and the mess humanity has made of his creation. Some might question the exactness of his comment, arguing that the work's close points to irresolution rather than embodying such bleak finality. Yet Davis is also acutely conscious of Beethoven's demand that we view war as mankind's ultimate refutation of the idea of God. His performance with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus consequently emphasised the contrast between extremes of elation and despair.

The slow, measured tread of the Kyrie was undercut with a sense of urgency, while the ecstatic tumult that opens and closes the Gloria was replaced by churning anguish in the central Miserere. The Credo was exceptional in its fervour and strength, though the Sanctus, calmly contemplative rather than genuinely numinous, proved more elusive. The Agnus Dei, as one might expect given Davis's comments on the work, was the emotional centre of the performance, relentless in its progress before finally plunging into a nerve-racking silence that seemed to go on for ever.

The work's vocal challenges are notoriously difficult, and a sense of struggle in performance - of soloists and chorus pushed to breaking point in pursuit of an ideal - is integral to its impact. The choral singing throughout was thrilling and extreme, always sounding as if it were at the limits of endurance and safety. The soloists were excellent, though soprano Soile Isokoski had a couple of moments of uncertainty in the Benedictus, while the bass, Alistair Miles, occasionally sounded stentorian.