Calling for massed choral and orchestral forces, Berlioz’s Te Deum is a work for special occasions and spacious venues. It suits the Albert Hall and last night’s performance under the talented young Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki conjured the apocalyptic spirit of the piece.

Though a thunderous setting of a hymn of praise to the Almighty, this Te Deum is actually a striving after the faith Berlioz never really had. The plangent wind figures in the Dignare, echoing the text’s pleas for mercy, stand out for their eloquence. And dramatic as the final Judex Crederis is, it is the underlying sense of terror that provides the awesome dimension.

Adroitly identifying the pivotal moments, Mälkki drew thrilling results from the five assembled choirs (Bach Choir, BBC Symphony and Crouch End Festival Choruses, together with choristers from St Paul’s Cathedral and Trinity Boys Choirs) and BBC Symphony Orchestra with organist Simon Preston. The Mozart specialist Jörg Schneider brought welcome subtlety rather than heroic weight to the solo tenor role.

Ben Foskett’s From Trumpet makes a virtue of elaborating an entire 12-minute work from a single rhythmic cell, at first so quietly as to test the concert manners of the large audience, but rising to a pounding, insistent climax.

Devoid of melodic interest, it makes its considerable impact by rhythmic, textural means. Beethoven similarly builds structures from single rhythmic cells, of course, though Mälkki’s fine account of the Fourth Symphony in B Flat Major, taut and streamlined as it was, also tapped its lyrical vein, not least in its tender Adagio.
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