Founding director of Brighton Festival Chorus Laszlo Heltay was to have conducted Zoltan Kodaly's Missa Brevis for soloist, chorus and orchestra to mark the Festival's 40th anniversary.
Unfortunately, he slipped and injured himself during rehearsal and was replaced by the Chorus's current director James Morgan, who dedicated the piece to his predecessor.
The concert was exciting, not least for the first extended use of the newly refurbished Dome organ, played by Robert Quinney.
Sussex organ fans can look forward to a bright future as organ and chorus worked superbly together, with the chorus being its usual full-throated self, able to raise the roof with its power and then raise the hairs on the back of my neck with its whispers.
The Budapest Symphony Orchestra was conducted by a frail-looking Tamas Vasary, now 73.
But once on the podium he was far from ill-looking giving an exciting and rigorous programme of Hungry's musical heritage.
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