The Watford Philharmonic Society attracted a capacity audience on its welcome return to The Colosseum for its Christmas Concert. Depending on how you count, more than 20 pieces were performed, few of which were carols in the strict sense of a religious folk song, probably dating from the Middle Ages. The Holly and The Ivy came closest: appropriately for this event, its ideas go back to pre-Christian times. In this and three other pieces, the audience was invited to join in with the Society's choir and orchestra, which they did with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

From Handel's oratorio Messiah, written three and a half centuries ago, almost qualifying as folk music, three famous choruses were performed; in accordance with tradition, the audience was invited to stand for the Hallelujah Chorus and many of them did. From the same work, a fourth piece was The Trumpet Shall Sound, with Daniel Grice (baritone).

The famous trumpet solo suffered from some uncertainty; not all scholars would agree with the choice of decorations. The concert had begun with Handel's coronation anthem, Zadok the Priest.

As throughout, this immediately showed up the problems of an amateur body: imbalance between the sizes of the men's and women's sections of the choir and an orchestra that could not really match up to the large number of singers. But on this sort of occasion, what would one do without Handel?

These doubts did not apply to the three seasonal songs performed by The Chater Junior School Choir. They sang up well, with good rhythm. Their teacher, Mrs Olyett, deserved her bouquet.

Terry Edwards, the conductor, set the orchestra the test of playing something more ambitious in a programme mainly of chestnuts. They were not too happy with the 20th Century idiom of the Troika Ride from the Lieutenant Kije Suite by Prokofiev. The brass did well.

Perhaps the high point of the evening, however, was Hark The Herald Angels Sing. This time the audience joined in enthusiastically and that is how it should be, for this sort of concert is a social as well as a musical occasion.

Graham Mordue