FOR their candlelit carol concert, The Chapter House Choir were on fine form on Friday, calmly led by their director Benjamin Morris. Many stylish moments of great beauty atmospherically underlined the evening’s theme, Wondrous Mystery.

At their communicative best in Andrew Carter’s joyful Mirabile Mysterium and Poulenc’s O Magnum Mysterium, the singers also brought out the good humour in Warlock’s Benedicamus Domino. Morten Lauridsen’s radiant O Magnum Mysterium was deeply felt, secure in execution and organic in effect.

Not everything was equally successful. A hectoring account of Roderick Williams’s O Adonai made the piece too long for its material, its top-heavy antiphony overloading St Michael le Belfrey’s acoustic; Handl’s novel 16th century chromaticism in Mirabile Mysterium seemed ill at ease.

Sharing the billing was the Chapter House Youth Choir, a relatively new venture. Singing from memory, these accomplished teenagers showed sure-footed composure in the awkward rhythms of Barnum’s Sweeter Still and Snyder’s medley Fum Fum Fantasy.

For some regulars at these carol concerts, I suspect Christmas properly begins with the choir’s Handbell Ringers. Their unpretentious virtuosity is a delight, as is the resounding transparency of the musical arrangements they inspire. From the Minster next door, Great Peter striking the hour seemed determined to join in!

After the gripping, eloquent Lauridsen almost anything would have been anti-climactic, but the succeeding mawkish arrangement of Mary’s Boy Child that ended the concert actively dispelled higher sentiments. Thank goodness both choirs combined for an upbeat encore—appropriately, The Carol Of The Bells.