TAVISTOCK Parish Church was full for the Ten Tors Orchestra and Choir Gala Christmas Concert. This meant, with the excellent leadership of choir and orchestra, the carols for audience participation had great verve and enthusiasm. Under their conductor Simon Ible, the orchestra played Mozart's Symphony no 31, the Paris. This was played with a limpid grace, the French flavour of the piece well brought out. The choir was in excellent voice for the excerpts from Handel's Messiah; they gave a warm and generous sound, resulting in a rich, stimulating performance. The Irish tenor Sean Ruane was apparently suffering from a cold; this was not noticeable as he gave a magnificent performance of three Puccini arias. He has a considerable range, and his powerful voice is well suited to opera. After the interval and another carol, the choir showed a different aspect of their singing with two Rutter carols, which were beautifully balanced. Sean Ruane then gave a very stylish rendering of two songs from Lehar operettas, following them with a further carol as an encore. The orchestra's final piece was Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz, performed with great aplomb and transporting the audience back to nineteenth century Vienna. This was a splendid evening of music. Felicity Barnaby
