St Michael's Church, Dalston

If ever there was a concert which was designed to give praise, as in the Latin title of this programme, it had to be this one. Praise also must also be offered back to the choir. I have been to the DMVC Christmas Concerts for a few years now and I have never seen such a polished performance as this year. It was the contrast in the music too which held our attention throughout and the clarity of the voices adapting well to each genre.

It sounds an incongruous choice when I tell you that we had everything from Mozart to the Beach Boys, from G and S to Elvis and from Charles Aznavour to John Rutter!!There were some rarities too and two of my favourites were the mediaeval carol, Gaude Te, sung with such precision and Te Laudamus, made famous by the King's singers which was sung with a vocal intensity in respect of the rhythms.

It was also good this year to see so many of the choir involved in solos and this was particularly the case in "Ride the Chariot" and the Mozart, "Chorus of the Priests", both executed with panache and in the latter piece paying such respect to the original German text too. Well done to all.

The concert was prompted by too exciting musical intervals played by Caldew School pupils, Heather Cartwright with her acoustic guitar in an interesting and varied choice and Will Nixon who entertained us with Grieg and jazz adaptations on the piano and part of Mozart's Second Flute Concerto on the flute. It was lovely to see such expertise and right on our doorstep!

I was pleased that praise was given to Lorraine Gash who accompanied with great skill. So all in all, I think that talented musical director Michael Deakin must have been very pleased with this show, and judging from the comments that I overheard, so were the audience!