This wasn't the first musical journey I've been on but it was the first on the Orient Express, and the first to stop at so many destinations steeped in history and culture.

Thanks to the musical wizardry of the NSO, the NFO Chorus and the children of Beeston Stagecoach school, the audience was picked up in Eric Coates' Knightsbridge and wisked off to Instanbul, Budapest, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Rome and Paris accompanied by Italian opera, Hungarian dances, Offenbach's can-can, Sullivan's Gondoliers, Strauss polkas, and much more besides.

Keedie proved to be a popular (but, to my taste, over-amplified) choice as solo vocalist, equally at home in opera and musicals. Derek Williams and Andrew Nicklin brought sparkle to all the numbers as conductors, and as violin/piano duo played Kreislers's fiendishly difficult Tambourin Chinois.

Aled Jones was a convivial host and guide, until his viral infection meant that he had to leave the train just before Paris. Luckily the multi-talented Simon Theobold leapt into the breach, as well as bringing the house down as Rossini's Figaro and Mozart's Don Giovanni. The concert crackled with energy from beginning to end. The audience loved every minute of it.