“Tall and very serious interior,” noted Nikolaus Pevsner in the relevant London volume of his Buildings of England. It almost seems a criticism. But when the soaring neo-Gothic spaces of St James's Church in Marylebone resound with the voices of John Eliot Gardiner's Monteverdi Singers, any frowns are cast away. They ride the rollercoaster of baroque counterpoint with clarity and panache; in honied harmonies they ski and glide. The acoustic alone is a joy: resonant enough to supply a halo, yet with no dragging or blurring reverberation.

On paper the programme looked a little iffy, with its chronological leaps through sacred music from Giovanni Gabrieli (late 16th century) to that 20th-century conservative, Maurice Duruflé. But the interval softened the biggest leap (Schütz to Brahms), and the presence of two Requiem settings on the anniversary of the July 7 London bombings left us all thoughtful.

The line-up also showcased the virtuosity of Gardiner and his singers. Gabrieli, Francisco Guerrero and Schütz brought out the athletic fervour and forthright rhythms characteristic of many Gardiner performances. Schütz's Musikalische Exequien, cradled by the English Baroque Soloists, rang through the church with glory, its exultant choruses climaxing with distant voices floating from the west-end gallery. But frailty was represented too: when two bass soloists told of old age, labour and sorrow, we felt every ache of their bones.

Brahms's backward-looking Geistliches Lied brought out the choir's reserves of mellifluous legato, raided again in the plainchant-inflected cadences of Duruflé's Requiem (performed with dappled organ accompaniment from Robert Quinney). Some aural smudges appeared in the fast-moving fervour of the Offertorium - the night's only acoustic hiccup. But what did this matter when the mezzo-soprano Annie Gill, with Ruth Alford's obbligato cello, prayed so eloquently in the Pie Jesu, or the sopranos melted the ears singing “Requiem aeternum”? And when the piece drifted into eternity on its final unresolved chords, we were transported alongside.

This was a magical night, with superb musicians, in a building made for live music. More concerts, please, in this tall and very serious church.

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