If like me, you’ve been so busy that you haven’t had time to even think about Christmas yet, then the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs concert Carols at the House was a lovely way to slow down and get into the Yuletide mood; in fact, I really felt that “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” by the end of the evening.

The theatre program had “Ho Ho Ho!” emblazoned across its front but the repertoire didn’t really venture into Jingles Bells and Santa territory; instead it was a stirring selection of Christmas music from Bach to traditional carols to a dash of musical theatre and popular standards like White Christmas – with a brand new piece by Australian composer Luke Byrne called Capricornia emerging as one of the highlights of the evening.

Brett Weymark. Photograph © Keith Saunders

With conductor Brett Weymark at the helm, the concert featured a 500-strong choir made up of the Sydney Philharmonia’s Chamber Singers, VOX and Symphony Chorus, as well as the Christmas Choir, which began rehearsing six weeks ago, together with the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, an organist up top, and Kerrie Anne Greenland and Teddy...