Yes, but is this really a requiem? The question thumped into my head two minutes into Philippe Herreweghe’s insightful shaping of Mozart’s unfinished mass — and, despite some eye-opening revelations, it remained stubbornly lodged there.

You wouldn’t think a man like Herreweghe, who nearly became a monk instead of a maestro, would have trouble summoning up some old-fashioned fire and brimstone. But his priorities lay elsewhere: the careful moulding of each movement into a satisfyingly expressive whole, the fastidious attention paid to individual words and phrases, and the wonderful range of colours he drew from the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.

Yet too often he seemed to rein in the sheer, terrifying drama of Mozart’s Requiem in favour of something more earthbound. Once through a stormily unsettling Dies Irae, the disciplined singing of the Collegium Vocale Gent lacked real punch, while Herreweghe’s spry, almost dancing tempi in the Recordare and Offertorium obscured the darker subcurrents of the scoring.

Incisive contributions from the soloists made a difference. Mark Padmore’s impassioned tenor and the stentorian bass of Alfred Reiter were a strong duo; the honeyed soprano of Carolyn Sampson was neatly offset by Ingeborg Danz’s weightier, warier contralto. But what emerged at the buoyant ending (delivered in the Süssmayr completion) was more a communal rite than a glimpse into the agonies and ecstasies of the Last Judgment.

Perhaps the clue to Herreweghe’s interpretation lay in the evening’s opening gambit. Yes, this was Mozart’s morbid “Masonic funeral music”, but in its unfamiliar guise as a celebratory choral work named Meistermusik. It was an invigorating appetiser.

And if the Requiem lacked grit, then the performance of the Symphony No 39 that followed bristled with delightful twists and turns. The opening Allegro clawed its way out of a moody introduction. The Andante lunged towards its minor passages rather than sitting in predictable sunshine. And Herreweghe’s perfect control of pacing, dynamics and phrasing made for an unpredictable and absorbing race to the finish.