Birmingham comes to London, as chief conductor Kazuki Yamada leads the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), CBSO Children’s Chorus, CBSO Youth Chorus, CBSO Chorus, and University of Birmingham Voices. These mighty forces together give us a definitive playing of Orff’s iconic Carmina Burana (1936).

Every letter of the 800-year-old text comes across as crisp as the day the calligraphy was laid down by whichever mysterious rogues the authors were. This is no mean feat, considering the vast numbers of performers. But Yamada takes it all in his stride: it’s a cool, swift, note-perfect performance by the whole ensemble. Better yet, there’s not even a breath between the 25 movements: Yamada runs them all straight through.

A last-minute emergency addition to the programme, German counter-tenor Matthias Rexroth gives us the theatrical highlight: the hushed lamentations of a roasted swan, in “Olim Lacus Colueram”. Japanese soprano Maki Mori delights with a breathtaking cadenza in “Dulcissime”. Mexican baritone Germán Olvera seems to have one or two tuning issues, but only for making the most of the humour throughout the lyrics.

Before the interval, we also get Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms (1930). Explicitly religious themes make it a perfect counterpoint to the secular (and, at times, dirty) text of Carmina Burana. Here, the collected voices give us hushed mystery and reverence, in an unusual text-setting that gives us pain in Alleluia and yearning in Laudate.

Tickets for all 71 Proms are available from just £8 on the BBC Proms 2023 website.