Most highly-flavoured gravy

Well, anyone who wasn't at the Sheldonian Theatre this evening missed a cracking concert - which is pretty much everyone, really, because a bare 50 people rattled around in the theatre for the Oxford Camerata performance. I was expecting just the choir, but they turned out to be accompanied by a ten-piece brass ensemble from somewhere in Scandinavia (at least, I infer them to be Scandinavian, owing to the presence of øddities in their names). The Sheldonian acoustics are better than you'd think if you've ever been rammed in there 18-deep for a graduation ceremony, and the baroque trumpets sounded marvellous.

Anyone in London at a loose end tomorrow is highly recommended to get themselves to Smith Square to see the same performance. It's called The Glory of Christmas, and claims to be a millennium of Christmas music. It blatantly isn't - it flirts with some early carols, places itself moderately firmly in the baroque period, waves briefly over the parapet at Berlioz and goes scampering back to Handel for a finale.

( On concert etiquette )