Bach's great Mass in B minor never fails to lift the spirit. Under the baton of Thierry Fischer, the celebratory moments – the Gloria, the Et Exspecto Resurrectionem – certainly achieved that: give Fischer trumpets and drums and he gets a vivid brightness. In marked contrast, his handling of the slow sections was dispiriting. Bach needs a dancing spring in the step, yet even the opening Kyrie had the feeling of trudging along, dragging a heavy weight.

Normally, the strength of the BBC National Chorus of Wales is its flexibility, scaling up or down to suit the music in question. While using Joshua Rifkin's recent edition of the work, they couldn't have been further from the Bach scholar's ethos of one singer per part. Sixty-strong here, they sounded ill-balanced; the Et Incarnatus was just one of the occasions when they were under pressure. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales players are more than capable of holding their own in period-instrument style, and this was borne out in some of the lovely obbligatos, notably those of Anna Wolstenholme's flute and David Cowley's oboe d'amore. Too often, though, a sluggish bass line undermined proceedings, and Fischer seemed oblivious to this fundamental problem.

The solo singing made amends, with counter-tenor Robin Blaze and tenor Toby Spence both shaping their phrases with elegance and understanding; Blaze's Agnus Dei was the most affecting aria. Joanne Lunn's soprano had a pleasing, silvery ring, sensitively used in duets with the other singers, including soprano Elin Manahan Thomas; and Peter Harvey brought his customary warm, perceptive bass to the Et in Spiritum Sanctum.