King’s Lynn Festival Chorus swept us away on a Voyage a Paris on Saturday evening, travelling in time to Paris at the turn of the last century.

You could imagine yourself in the lofty church of La Madeleine, or Saint Sulpice or Notre Dame, with their great choirs and in their organ lofts, instruments which were masterpieces of the organ builder’s art.

The music which went with them was vast, resonant and operatic in style. And the Festival Chorus, with one of Britain’s great organists, Martin Baker, at the Minster organ, gave us an authentic taste of that music.

The first half explored the more lyrical pieces by Cesar Franck and Gabriel Faure, Ravel and Marcel Dupre.  The second gave us the celebrated Messe Solennelle by Louis Vierne, with Martin Baker’s three improvisations on the organ as part of the piece in the French tradition.

The sound which reverberated round the Minster was extraordinary, very different from the sound those old stones are used to, and the loud applause for the chorus, their conductor Ben Horden and Martin Baker was well deserved. 

– Lynn News