Up the road at the City Recital Hall, Paul Dyer and his Brandenburg band were mixing up the old with the new, Santa was in his grotto and DVDs of Love Actually were being dusted off ready for the big day. Meanwhile, in the Sydney Opera House, Christmas tradition was very much alive and kicking with a 600-voice mega- blaster performance of Handel’s Messiah.

The great oratorio has been performed in Sydney each December since 1845 and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs close their season with it every second year, alternating with a Carols in the House concert. This year the two-and-a-half hour epic was in the best of hands led by Graham Abbott, who has conducted more than 80 performances of the work and is considered to be one of Australia’s foremost Handel specialists.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and conductor Graham Abbott. Photo © Keith Saunders

With the SPC’S combined Symphony Chorus and Christmas Choir, featuring four first-class soloists and the 50 musicians of the excellent Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, this was a crackerjack show with the new improved Concert Hall acoustics adding a further dimension to previous outings.

This was noticeable in the...