A commission sent from Heaven: that’s how John Tavener describes a request he received for his Sollemnitas in Conceptione Immaculata Beatae Maria Virginis – and, of course, he means it literally. And the UK premiere of his 100-minute “universalist” Mass for two choirs, four basses, strings, organ, percussion, string quartet, bandir drum and soprano was, indeed, a Heaven-sent opportunity for the Brighton Festival.

The stalls of the Dome were turned into a promming area: Tavener acolytes sat crosslegged, the robust stood for the duration, and a small child in white slept, curled up under the podium. It was the nearest thing to a sacred rite – which is what Tavener wants it to be.

As ever, there’s a lot of white space in the score. But Tavener presents himself in energetically exultant mood as well, with the “royalty” of Christ ringing out of voices, organ, brass and timpani in the sharp syllabic shocks within, for instance, the Gloria and the Credo. But it’s the Eternal Feminine which is really being celebrated here – in the ecstatic, distant sound of string quartet and solo soprano, invoking not only “Maria” but just about every Hindu and American Indian goddess in the book. Sanskrit, German (Tavener’s guru, Frithjof Schuon), Latin, Arabic, Aramaic and Greek – it’s all there.

In a mosaic-like musical structure, the music invoking the primordial and universal feminine is taken from different parts of the Mass; a single violin line resonates sweetly under the various intonations; and the sacred syllable “om” is electronically diffused from four bass voices. James Morgan held everything and everybody together: the City of London Sinfonia, Brighton Festival Chorus and Youth Choir, the “priest” Simon Wall, and the soprano soloist Rebecca Ryan.

Towards the end Tavener “pierces” the Magnificat six times with a quotation from his earlier work for solo cello and orchestra, The Protecting Veil, played by Steven Isserlis as a prelude to the evening.

The night before, more mysticism at a Messiaen Anniversary Concert. The French composer was honoured in a performance of his Quatuor pour la fin du temps, played with robust commitment by Finghin Collins (piano), Elizabeth Cooney (violin), Richard Harwood (cello) and Carol McGonnell (clarinet). And for those players, the Belfast-born composer Ian Wilson had written a “setting” of the Gabriel Garcia Márquez short story, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.

With Gavin Friday as narrator, it received its UK premiere in a packed Corn Exchange: sand-ripples of meandering lines and sea-sprays of song and tremolo, in a cunning score that never upstaged, but was as impassioned as the words themselves.

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