I've just watched it on the iPlayer too and really enjoyed it. (I listened on phones and the sound was fine - if you're watching on tv it might be worth following the suggestion above and routing the sound through your hi-fi. The only thing I really disliked on the sound front was the acoustic guitar accomapnying Lisa Knapp - worst kind of electrified pick-up sound).

The atmosphere doesn't come across as well as being there, but when does recorded sound rival the live thing for that. The effect was still discernible and in B/H's Sloe Gin Set you couldn't help feel it (think the Orquestra Simon Bolivar Orquestra at the Proms a few years ago - same feel).

I agree with some of the opinions of individual performances cited above and disagree with others - but I don't see that that's a reason to describe the people I disagree with as whingey or wankers or anything else. What you like's personal and someone not liking what you like doesn't make them any more of a bad person than you are. So in the process of disagreeing with others, I'll say I did actually like the Unthanks' In The Deep Midwinter and B/H's Mistletoe Bough. And I though Lisa Knapp's Coventry Carol was one of the most arresting performances I've heard.

I thought the sense of enjoyment came across from the opening promenade entry to the end. (I did listen to the omitted Shepherds Arise and while that was really good, I think, the perhaps artistically inferior as a song, Jingle Bells was the better finisher).

I think those of you planning to settle down to it on Christmas Eve (was it?) with a bottle of wine, or other favoured tipple, won't be disappointed. One of my Christmas rituals since the 70s has been to play a record called something like A Mediaeval Christmas (the Boston Camerata) and I don't think Christmas has started until I hear Oriente Partibus. But I could easily play a recording of this concert instead to put me in a Christmas mood.

Mick