For all its popularity at this time of year, Handel's Messiah is not primarily concerned with Christmas.

The discriminating listener – and there was a pleasingly substantial number in the Minster on Saturday – knows that Bach's six Christmas cantatas keep to the seasonal point.

Bach does not make it easy, however, either for his choir or his orchestra.

Even with the fourth cantata excised, as here, it calls for immense concentration, not to say stamina.

But YMS, conducted with considerable vitality by Philip Moore, was up to the challenge.

There were one or two larger choruses, it is true, where a handful of sopranos did sterling duty, on a Battle Of Britain scale, for the many of their colleagues who feared to bite the bullet. They need to take a lead from the tenors and basses – far fewer, but fearless in the fray – if a proper balance is to be achieved.

But the general effect was thrilling, thanks in considerable part to the orchestra's nerve and application. Nicola Rainger led from the front in her cool violin obbligatos, with Jane Wright's mellow oboe and a crisp (unnamed) bassoonist in close support.

Lorna Anderson’s engaging soprano also ensured a performance well above average, her final aria dispatched with world-class finesse. Nicolas Mulroy was a clear, forceful Evangelist, if verging on the operatic. Timothy Jones was the ultra-reliable bass, but Annie Gill’s otherwise attractive mezzo all but vanished in the lower ranges.