To hear the Thomanerchor, the choir of St Thomas Church in Leipzig, is to be in touch with history: this was Johann Sebastian Bach's choir. Perhaps Bach himself felt that frisson when first directing the Thomaner in 1723; even then the choir had been in existence for over 500 years. Add to that the reputation of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra over two centuries, and the unbroken tradition embodied in this performance of the B minor Mass was awesome.

The Thomaner sound is bright and lively: the boy sopranos and altos fresh and open; the teenage tenors and basses - spottier and scruffier, but some singing the whole score from memory - remarkably resonant. In both the Gloria and Sanctus, the combination with the high trumpets was thrilling, but there were moments when the chorus - numbering just more than 50 on stage - did not quite have the maturity or depth of tone to sustain the lacerating beauty of Bach's extended melodies.

Only in his pacy approach to the Crucifixus did the direction of Georg Christoph Biller, present cantor of the choir, offer any surprises. Reverence was reserved for the final Et Sepultus Est, making the outburst of joy at the resurrection all the more striking. Of the four soloists - Leipzig stalwarts Ute Selbig, Elisabeth Wilke, Martin Petzold, Gotthold Schwarz - tenor Petzold was the most affecting. But it was in the heart-stoppingly beautiful playing of the Leipzig Gewandhaus instrumentalists that Bach's genius shone through.