How should one feel after a performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis? Elated at the memory of the jubilant Gloria? Uneasy at the disquiet of the Agnus Dei, and the way in which the choir seems to finish on an unresolved question? Or, strangely, consoled at the fact that the composer of the first and the second are the same man – that someone who can express such certainty can also be riven with doubt, just like any imperfect human?

After this, the first collaboration between Gianandrea Noseda and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, all three impressions lingered; indeed, it was a moving performance that asked more questions than it answered, which is how this work should be heard. The Philharmonia Chorus brought musicality, assurance and sheer stamina to what must be one of the most gruelling sings in their repertoire. The quartet of vocal soloists, imported from Germany, were not consistently assets, but all apart from the woolly sounding bass had moments of soaring clarity.

Noseda seems a perfect fit with the OAE; here, he took an ensemble that at its best is electrified, and turned up the voltage to sparking point. The tenderness with which he shaped passages such as the opening Kyrie found its counterweight in furiously dynamic allegros. Yet, while at 85 minutes this was a brisk performance, the impression it left was not one of hurtling speed, but of energy, of shifting colours and responsiveness to Beethoven's detailed and evocative orchestral writing.

The performance was dedicated to the memory of Charles Mackerras, a much-missed conductor of both chorus and orchestra, and no stranger himself to taking the musical bull that is Beethoven by the horns. He would have been proud.