‘Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?’. No sleigh bells tonight, but I was certainly listening as this concert was sung in memory of the late – and long-standing – conductor Philip Honnor, writes Suzanne Smelt.

The ladies gave an insightful interpretation of Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, a collection of Christmas miniatures, bound at either end by a Procession and Recession.

I enjoyed the pure, bell-like tone of the sopranos’ unison singing in the opening Hodie – a fitting sound for this piece which was originally written for boy trebles.

Equally impressive was the consistently secure intonation throughout, again notable in the unison passages. Some well-controlled quiet singing added polish.

Philippa Robinsons’s beautiful singing of The Three Kings (Cornelius), bravely performed from memory, engaged us in her story-telling.

The choir was equally able to communicate the meaning of Masters of The Hall (Wilcocks) with its energetic drive and purposeful performance. Similarly exciting was Sir Christèmas (Mathias) with its perfectly executed syncopated rhythms.

Talented musician and conductor Philip Honnor

The lesser known A Christmas Cantata by Geoffrey Bush was another set of carols, a musical stocking-full of delights for the ear, embellished by Trudy Mansfield’s accomplished oboe playing and by Catherine Styring’s expressive soprano soli.

Earlier Trudy had wowed us with her stylish playing of well-known melodies by Bach and Vivaldi.

The Seven Songs of Mary stood out for its well-disciplined polyphonic singing and confident men’s verses, secure in sound if not always in tempo! Take care, sopranos, to avoid over-singing in loud passages as the fragile blend of the choir (with women far outnumbering men) was momentarily disturbed by the prominence of some individual voices.

Throughout this evening’s concert I found the singers to be extremely responsive to their conductor Alexander Douglas and with this developing rapport they pulled together to create some lovely and wide ranging choral sounds.

Sue Ogden met every challenge at the piano, which included playing some difficult transcriptions. An outstanding accompanist.

We definitely heard a Winter Wonderland of music tonight!