among a quintet of good soloists Grace Davidson floated Bach's plangent line quite beautifully in 'Quia respexit', singing with warm tone, while Matthew Venner gave a delightfully relaxed performance of 'Esurientes', supported by beguiling flutes. Mention should also be made of tenor, Jeremy Budd. First he matched Venner's light voice very well in 'Et misericordia', to which Jeffrey Skidmore's chosen tempo imparted a good, easy lilt; later Budd brought a splendid ringing tone to 'Deposuit potentes' in which I admired his clarity in the difficult divisions. The choir was on fine form from the start. Their precision and rhythmic clarity impressed in the opening chorus, which was light, buoyant and, of course, festive with three natural trumpets. They brought good attack to 'Fecit potentiam' and the 'Sicut locutus est' fugue was really well delivered, all the fugal lines coming across. The orchestra was not large -- the strings mustered 4/4/2/2/1 with pairs of flutes and oboes, bassoon, timpani, chamber organ and the trio of trumpets -- but they were very well balanced against a choir of 38, including the soloists, and the playing was expert throughout. All in all this was a suitably joyful and thoroughly enjoyable performance. In his brief programme note Alec Roth said that A Time to Dance "celebrates the 'times' and 'seasons' of human existence." The work, which ran for 58 minutes in this performance, is divided into a Prologue and Epilogue, each entitled 'Sunrise', and four main sections, 'Spring Morning', 'Summer Noon', 'Autumn Evening' and