THE choir celebrated its golden jubilee with this well-attended concert and it is hard to imagine that in the course of 50 years it has ever been in better voice.

On most of the criteria on which one might judge a choir, the Marsh Ladies, under the direction of Paul Iredale, showed that they are on top form as they begin their second half century.

It is no surprise that a well-trained all-woman choir should be able to sing with good intonation, attractive tone and rhythmic lightness. Less to be expected, perhaps, was the power of sound which the choir achieved, especially in fortissimo final chords which, with the exception of the very first number, kept immaculately in tune.

The repertoire was highly varied. A particularly eclectic sequence consisted of the spiritual Didn't It Rain, a setting of a poem by A E Houseman (one of the few numbers in which the clarity of the words was disappointing) and an arrangement of Fly Me To The Moon.

The most ambitious number was a world premiere. Huddersfield University graduate Amy Whitwam had composed The Light Gatherer - to words by Carol Ann Duffy - especially for this concert. It was probably deceptively demanding for the singers, who coped very well with its concealed rhythmic complexities. With violin obbligatos - performed by Amy Whitwam and Joanne Poulter - the piece was redolent of the meditative style associated with composers such as Arvo Part. The concert also included songs and arias from the soprano Emma McNeil, solos from the ever-excellent accompanist John S Bailey and a medley of comic songs by Sterndale-Bennett, sung by the concert's compere Raymond Ellis.