Handel's Messiah by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

It's a Christmas tradition for many concertgoers, and a must-hear if you've never spent your festive season listening to that glorious Hallelujah chorus.

You may even notice some members of the audience rising to their feet with respect for Handel's ecstatically bright composition – one of the oratorio's many movements led by conductor James MacMillan.

Starring soprano Mia Chenea Robinson is a young expert in sacred choral music – and a local Melburnian. She sings alongside mezzo soprano Stephanie Dillon who has previously conquered the heights of Bach's St John Passion and Monteverdi's Vespers, and who bravely throws her voice in the deep end as a primary school teacher between performances. Louis Hurley and David Greco bring their familiar but world-class voices into those deeper-pitched roles of tenor and baritone, while this mammoth-scale Baroque masterpiece will be rounded out with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus.