ST ANDREW'S Church was pleasingly full for an evening of music making by the Burnham and Highbridge Choral Society, presenting the well known Requiem by Mozart, together with a slightly less well known, Handel's Samson.

Having said that, the Mozart Requiem is not an easy proposition and contains a number of pitfalls for the unwary, especially in the fugal writing that appears in several movements.

The singers rose to the challenge and produced a florid performance. The piece had been well prepared and had some very effective dynamic shading, together with an overall good sense of balance.

Occasionally some of the contrapuntal writing became fractured, but John Henshaw quickly reined in any voices straying out of synchronisation.

The choir was complimented by some highly competent performances by Sara Farleigh, Iain MacLeod Jones and David Fouracre, together with soprano Rebecca Weaver, who stood in for Mary Morgan at very short notice. The orchestra supported well, although a double bass would have helped lower in the texture.

The extracts from Samson provided the audience with some very enjoyable music and once again, the soloists performed well, with Mary Morgan singing soprano.

Much of the music demonstrated an even better sense of balance and clarity - the chorus seemed more confident with the homophonic textures and minor contrapuntal sections.

One of the highlights of the second half was the air Let the Bright Seraphim, which had some excellent singing from Mary Morgan and bright trumpet playing from Paul Denegri. The concert was rounded off well, with a confident rendition of the chorus Let Their Celestial Concerts All Unite.

Overall, a very enjoyable concert, which was deservedly well supported.