-- Southampton Princess Hotel Amphitheatre, Saturday December 6 Now I know my Beethovens from my Bachs and my Mozarts from my Mahlers.

I'm still many miles short of being the world's greatest authority on classical music.

But thanks to many happy hours listening to all forms of music as a child, I know how to enjoy a good Christmas concert.

There's a lot more to it than just a bit of carol singing. And just like Christmas, music should be for children too.

My own musical tastes range from pop and rock to folk and blues and, of course, opera and classical.

That's only because my parents and teachers had the good sense to urge me to explore music of all different kinds.

So it was encouraging that children were the focus of this extraordinarily well-presented Christmas performance by The Bermuda Philharmonic Society.

Right at the start, narrator Ruth Thomas told the 400-strong audience that it was a concert for children and "those of us who are children at heart''.

Of course we are all children at heart, at least we are if we enjoy Christmas.

And one way to enjoy this season is to get involved in its music.

The centrepiece of this Christmas celebration, a sponsored event for the first time after the Philharmonic ran into money troubles, was Howard Blake's The Snowman.

The Snowman is a almost a modern-day version of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, and almost as good.

It is a children's story -- this time about a young boy who goes on a magical adventure with a snowman, rather than a young boy who goes hunting a wolf.

It is narrated to classical music and it includes one main vocal part, sung on Saturday night by boy soprano John McKenna.

The Snowman is so popular in England that it has been translated into television cartoon form and has become a Christmas standard.

So it is little wonder that this part of the show brought about the loudest noise in the auditorium -- a thunder of applause from the audience of young and old alike.

Those in the audience who had sufficient confidence in their voices joined the 50-strong choir in five carols.

The rest of the programme was made up of orchestral Christmas music, two Tchaikovsky ballet pieces and an "Instant Christmas Concert'', including a few bars of just about every festive anthem every written.

The 45 players in the Philharmonic orchestra, including seven violinists from the Bermuda-based Menuhin String Players, counted 18 music students among their numbers.

The musical youth on display included two boy soloists who sang during the evening.

And hardly a single performer plucked a wrong string or blew a dodgy note all night.

Even if they had, that wouldn't have been the point. Remember, these players are part-timers.

It was a night to start entering into the spirit of Christmas -- and if the children enjoyed it, then Bermuda's musical future is in safe hands.

NEIL ROBERTS CONCERT REVIEW ENT REV