Archive for May, 2009
A busy bank holiday weekend….and a day in the life of a string quartet
It’s been a busy bank holiday weekend for us with three weddings, one was a wedding at Loseley Park near Guildford, the second wedding was at the Elvetham in Hampshire and a third (much nearer to home), was a wedding at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire.
All three had unique requests and in the case of the first two, [...]
Concert at St Giles Church, 15th May 2009
Despite forecasts of rain, the weather was absolutely beautiful on the Friday evening of our village church concert and brought the audience out en masse. I think that it’s not a bad way to end the working week - coming along to a country church and enjoying a glass of wine whilst hearing some classical music.
Everyone [...]
Concert at St Giles Church - Preparation!
Although the quartet are very accustomed to travelling long distances to play, this week, it’s particularly nice to be playing a concert about a five minute walk from my house. We’re going to be performing a concert tomorrow evening in St Giles Church in our home village of Cheddington - and have been working hard [...]
Fiorillo Duet in C for Violin and Cello (Allegro Spiritoso)
Spohr, Gade and a huge Viola Cadenza!
Today we managed to play through seven complete works - two for string quartet, then as Louise (violinist) had to leave early, we tried out a further five for string trio.
Firstly, it was a special moment to finally play the Spohr Quartet in G (Op. 82 no. 2) - having spent so many hours re-setting the score [...]
Musicians Gallery….
Some of the weddings we enjoy playing for most of all are those where the acoustics of the venue are such that quartet can really be heard during the wedding reception - and this weekend up in the musicians gallery at Kingscote Barn in Tetbury was a really good example.
A musicians gallery (or ‘minstrels gallery’) is a form of [...]
Food poisoning, stuck in the Himalayas and professional responsibility
One of the most common questions we’re asked by potential clients is ‘what happens if one of our musicians is ill on the day of the wedding?’ All our players are in demand and generally get booked up by orchestras in advance, so how do we go about finding another musician of equal quality and [...]
Surprisingly Good Concerts - In a church near you…
We’re very lucky in the UK to have such a strong tradition of church concerts – from the many excellent lunchtime recitals in our city churches to regular evening performances in rural churches up and down the country.
In these days of the ‘credit crunch’, saving on the train fare and enjoying classical music nearer [...]
