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The choir tackle an ambitious, if overly long programme of Advent-themed works with mixed results.

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, with their director Graham Ross, wound up their North American tour with music for Advent at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, Cleveland, with music by Howells, Britten, Tavener, Rutter, and Roderick Williams's haunting "O Adonai et Dux domus Israel."

The theme of tonight’s concert, revealed the programme notes, was that of “marking time and preserving timeless values” – Christmas being a season that connects the past with the present.

The King’s Singers epitomise a cappella musicianship. The group was originally formed in the 1960s by choral scholars of King’s College, Cambridge (and one from Christ Church, Oxford), but its current membership includes members who were previously choral scholars at Oxford, and even one member from New Zealand.

For this Christmas concert we were transported from the Auckland Philharmonia’s usual venue at the Auckland Town Hall to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. It was interesting to compare the sound of the orchestra; the cathedral has a slight echo that seemed to boost the richness of the orchestra’s sound, at times (like at the climax of Bizet’s Farandole) becoming almost shockingly loud.