There was a party atmosphere at St Nicholas Chapel on Saturday evening when King's Lynn Festival Chorus celebrated their 40th Anniversary with a special concert of their favourite choral music. There was a party atmosphere at St Nicholas Church on Saturday evening when King's Lynn Festival Chorus celebrated their 40th Anniversary with a special concert of their favourite choral music. The nearly 100-strong choir, which included five of the original choir of 1977, served what their director, Tom Appleton, described as a veritable musical smorgasbord.

An appreciative audience were treated to a display of the choir's ability to adapt their singing to a variety of styles spanning five centuries.

There were sensitive performances of Byrd's appropriately named 'Sing Joyfully' and the chorus's great favourite, Rachmaninov's 'Bogoroditse Devo' together with their stirring singing of 'I Was Glad' and parts of Bach's B Minor Mass.

This contrasted with lively performances of the spiritual 'Plenty Good Room' and opera choruses by Verdi and Borodin.

A moving moment occurred when the choir sang J.S.Bach's 'Ruht Wohl' in memory of former members of the choir who were no longer with us.

The choir's accompanist, Chris Brown, delighted the audience with a witty organ improvisation of tunes they had suggested during the interval and the concert ended with Abba's 'Thank You for the Music', which expressed perfectly the feelings of both choir and audience.