YOU have to wonder how a member of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra finds time for Christmas shopping.

This was the BSO’s fourth different concert with a festive theme, following Handel’s Messiah, Last Night of the Christmas Proms and The Snowman, just days before.

It was also the orchestra’s final performance before Christmas and it had the cheery atmosphere of the last day of term, with musicians in festive jumpers or Santa hats.

But this concert was not just about the BSO. It was also a chance to hear the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and to discover just how good the Bournemouth Symphony Youth Chorus are.

After a demanding schedule at home and on tour, you could forgive the BSO for asking the audience to lend a hand. The concert-goers were on their feet no fewer than six times to join in with some of the best-loved carols.

Not everything on the programme was strictly a carol. The opening number was Rossini’s gorgeous La Cenerentola Overture, while the first half ended with the chorus under the spotlight for a superb rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

There was a new and beautiful carol, The Gift of Love, whose composer, Barnaby Prangnell, was called to the stage to share in the applause being enjoyed by the orchestra and the superb youth chorus.

But for most of the evening, we were on familiar territory, and rightly so. With Victor Aviat conducting, we were taken through a programme of everyone’s favourite Christmas tunes: O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Good King Wenceslas (including all the lesser-known verses for once), Ding! Dong! Merrily on High, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. The host, BSO chief executive Dougie Scarfe, linked things none too seriously, even persuading the conductor to pull a cracker and share the jokes.

One of the abiding memories will be the second encore, in which the orchestra let its hair down for a fast and fun rendition of Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, with the percussion foregrounded thanks to the necessity for sleigh-bells and cantering hooves.

Mr Scarfe noted that the BSO has played 130 concerts and reached 150,000 people this year. We work our musicians hard in these parts and after this great evening, they deserve their few days off before the Johann Strauss Viennese Gala ushers in the new year.