Review of King’s Lynn Festival Chorus’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols at St Nicholas’ Chapel

Jill Bennett shares her thoughts on King’s Lynn Festival Chorus’s performance of Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols.

When we have had weeks of pre-recorded carols and Christmas music piped out of countless loudspeakers, how marvellous it is to hear those melodies sung live by a first-rate choir in one of Lynn’s most beautiful buildings.

King’s Lynn Festival Chorus filled St Nicholas’s Chapel with music old and new at their concert on Saturday.

First, as the lights dimmed, a candle-lit procession to begin Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, a 20th century work so evocative of Christmas over the ages.

Britten, brought up in Lowestoft and educated at Gresham’s in Norfolk, was on a wartime Atlantic crossing with his partner Peter Pears when he composed the piece.

As the ship pitched and rolled her way to England, he conjured up a musical picture of Christmas worship in a peaceful medieval church.

The festival chorus caught the essence of the piece, not the easiest of scores to sing, under the excellent direction of Ben Horden.

The accompaniment was solely on the harp, played with masterly skill by internationally acclaimed harpist Oliver Wass. It was a treat to listen to the whole performance.

Then came the programme of carols - some for us, the audience, to join in, and some for the chorus, all accompanied by Jo Richards.

It is a measure of this choir that it includes members able to take on solo parts and sing them well.

Perhaps we should call them the Festive Chorus for giving the old carols the polish and vitality which brings us back to them every year.

By the time the audience spilled out into the chilly evening air, we felt we had had a true feast of Christmas music and spirit.