If a concert I attend combines first-class performances of music I don't already know or I've not gotten to know well, then I'm a happy man.

This was the case recently when I attended the Lynn Festival Chorus's concert featuring Constant Lambert's secular cantata, The Rio Grande and Carl Orff's choral masterpiece, Carmina Burana. Conductor Ben Horden directed the performances with enthusiasm arid confidence, with soloists Harriet Mountford (soprano), Rory Carver (tenor), Geoff Clapham (baritone), Hamish Brown (piano), and Archie Bonham (piano). Percussionists from The British Sinfonietta, joined with the chorus to give exciting and incisive renderings of the two works, which both include pounding and dancing rhythms, and jazz elements. Constant Lambert (1905–1951) was a prominent and popular figure in the London scene during the early twentieth century, a talented composer and musician, especially famous for his clever book, Music Ho. The Rio Grande is the setting of a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell, the Rio Grande river being used to connect urban and country life.

Carl Orff (1895–1982) is mainly remembered for his famous and popular work Carmina Burana. The opening movement, 'O Fortuna', is universally well known. It was especially welcome, however, to hear the work in its entirety, a truly remarkable piece, although the medieval texts Orff sets praises the less noble aspects of life!

The concert was a fine conclusion to the Festival Chorus' current season, well attended as usual; their next concert is held on Saturday, November 1, entitled I Was Glad!, celebrating the English anthem, with music by Elgar, Parry, and Wesley

– Andy Tyler, Lynn News