THIS annual New Year celebration by Dorset’s renowned orchestra is always certain to attract a full house and this last performance of their present tour was no exception.

The much loved favourites from the Strauss family provided an enchanting evening of music that was played with passion and perfection under the expert direction of Thomas Rosner, a Viennese musical master with great enthusiasm for the Austrian dance tradition.

Waltzes and polkas put the audience in toe tapping mood in a familiar programme that offered no surprises, consisting as it did of pieces that never fail to please as The Emperor, Voices of Spring and Pizzicato Polka were given fresh stimulus by the full orchestra.

Soprano Elizabeth Watts was on hand to supply vocal treats from the sounds of Victorian musical compositions such as the Czardas aria from Die Fledermaus and Vilja from The Merry Widow in which the audience were invited to join in the chorus – and they did.

The evening proved to be a predictable but thoroughly professional performance from the opening overture moments of Von Suppe’s Poet and Peasant to the beautiful Blue Danube waltz.

The orchestra will be returning to Weymouth in July and it is a pretty fair bet to say that a capacity audience is almost certainly guaranteed.