Music for the festive season.

THE first frosts of November - the last leaves falling from the trees - and music-lovers know that Messiah-time is with us once again.

All up and down the country the faithful choristers will be seen clutching the well-worn vocal scores, as they trudge to local chapels and churches for rehearsals of Handel's famous oratorio. It can then only be a few weeks before the tenor is speaking "comfortably to Jerusalem"; the soprano telling us she knows that her "Redeemer liveth"; and the ...