From the hottest day of the year to the coldest at Glyndebourne

The hottest day of the year inspired a music director to piece together a concert to be staged on the coldest.

It was on July 19, when temperatures across the UK exceeded 40 degrees, that Aidan Oliver, Glyndebourne's conductor and chorus director, sat down to think about music that would be suitable for the opera house's Christmas Concert, staged last weekend.

He admitted he had probably been influenced by the heat as his programme included Christmas on the Beach at Waikiki by the Glyndebourne Youth Opera, a cheerful Italian operatic chorus from Donizetti as well as Baba Yetu from South Africa, sung by impressive baritone Kamohelo Tsotetsi.

These sat alongside more traditional, but refreshingly different carols from Poland and Cornwall as well as Rutter's I Saw Three Ships and Walton's Orb and Sceptre, a moving tribute to her late Majesty.

Andrew Cottee's Christmas Medley was pure Hollywood. All the music was appreciated by a young audience (including a few two-year-olds scattered through the auditorium) and Aidan Oliver insisted this was a 'chilled programme' with no problems if people got up and wandered around a bit!

A moving performance by the Glyndebourne Chorus of Poulenc's Gloria introduced a slightly more sombre feel, although that was immediately followed by an interval enlivened by a glass or two of mulled wine.

The concert represented a side of Glyndebourne many do not realise exists - that it is there for everyone, particularly the folk of Sussex, who relish this annual celebration which kicks off the last two weeks of pre-holiday anticipation.