Christmas concerts are always festive, but they become especially joyful when they contain real Christmas music. Heinrich Schutz' Christmas Story is nearly a self-contained service of lessons and carols, alternating between the Evangelist's narration and responses in the form of choruses and arias. The choruses are particularly colorful; they use many different combinations of voices (there is even one for four basses)

In last Friday's concert, the instrumentalists played well, notwithstanding a few problem in the brass section. But conductor Elliot Forbes' chorus was less effective, especially in the middle section. The Choral Society sounded like a boy's chorus -- appropriately innocent and light, but a little superficial in tone -- while the Glee Club overpowered the women and also many of the more delicate rhythms of the Schutz. Both choruses had good diction, however, and they sang better together than separately.

Carlotta Wilsen combined flexibility with an ability to draw out sustained passages in a fine performance of the soprano arias. Don Meaders was forceful and poised singing Herod. As the Evangelist, Henry Gibbons sang with ease and lucid diction; his performance was solidly musical at every point.

Stravinsky's Petrouchka comes from a period in the composer's career during which he stressed Russian themes and styles in his music. This ballet suite uses the orchestra in some unique ways: Stravinsky occasionally makes the orchestra a vehicle for visual as well as aural effects: when the whole orchestra makes a tremolo, the players seem to shake together.

The HRO's perfectly coordinated performance communicated all these effects. Each dance, and especially the wierd waltz of the third scene, displayed its particular character. The winds and violins played especially well, while all the strings stayed in tune and produced a rich but transparent tone. My only disappointment was that the music was done in concert rather than as a ballet.