Even for those who don't cry "Bah humbug!" at Christmas, and actually enjoy listening to festive music, find there's too much of a good thing at this time of year.
This Concertos for Christmas concert proved refreshingly different - no carols just a liberal selection of bracing baroque music. Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G minor is better known as his Christmas Concerto due to its beautiful heart's-easing pastoral finale, a tender musical evocation of the nativity scene.
Benedetti sounded a little inhibited in this opening work, perhaps being too punctilious in resisting the temptation for emotional self-indulgence.
By the time the final items arrived, autumn and winter from The Four Seasons, any such inhibitions had gone. This was not the bland, homogenized Vivaldi that tortures us via everything from restaurant muzak to ring-tones.
Dynamically wide, extreme in tempi sometimes aggressive in phrasing, Benedetti's violin soared, cajoled and capered, conjuring up autumn's dozing beer-sodden peasants and the icy winds of winter. She was given excellent support from the 12-strong European Union Chamber Orchestra.
Performances of Christmas concertos by Torelli and Manfredini, led by violinist Gergely Kuklis's adroit playing, showed how accomplished they are.
Two (non-Christmassy) items featuring the brilliant young cellist Leonard Elschenbroich were the concert's highlights: Vivaldi's Cello Concerto in G minor RV 416 and his Concerto for Violin and Cello in F RV 544. In the latter's finale Elschenbroich and Benedetti's "anything you can do I can do better" duelling was not only dazzlingly skilful but also hugely enjoyable.
