Tina Johns Heidrich conducted her Connecticut Master Chorale in this appropriately splendid setting, newly gilt and refurbished though not yet with its stained glass unboarded.

Ably supported by a 15-piece orchestra, which had four intermezzos all to itself, the 55 auditioned singers performed with their customary skill and fervor in a program that (after an organ preamble from the “Water Music” played by Joseph Jacovino Jr.) began and ended with excerpts from “Messiah.”

Heidrich had arranged the program, dubbed “Handel With Care,” for maximum contrast — now the women leading, now the men — and built from a pointed chorus like “Fallen Is the Foe” from “Judas Maccabæus” to the imitative “He Gave Them Hail-stones” from “Israel in Egypt.”

There’s a lot of variety in this music.

The afternoon’s second half, which found everyone in full voice and fine fettle, included the sparkling instrumental Entrance of the Queen of Sheba (“Solomon”) and a harmonically inventive “The People Shall Hear” (“Israel in Egypt).”

Among the “Messiah” excerpts at the end were “Worthy Is the Lamb” and the grand, final Amen — but Heidrich didn’t stop there.