The ‘Very’ Last Night of the Cheddington Proms
On Saturday evening, after playing for the wedding at Fanhams Hall, Adrian (Viola) and I came home to play for a fund raising concert in the village - in aid of the appeal to restore the Church Bells at St Giles. The evening was themed on the idea of the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ but as this concert took place a good month after the Proms season had finished, it was affectionately titled the ‘VERY’ Last Night of the Proms.
The performances on the evening included pieces by local amateur musicians as well as the Chandos Ensemble who are based in Tring and have their own concert series. Like any good Proms concert, the pieces were diverse, with recitals on Soprano Saxophone, Jazz Flute, Violin, Jazz Singing, Choral performances and myself and Adrian on string duo.
Our pieces were the First two movements of Mozart’s Duo in G (K423) and a piece arranged by Halvorsen on a theme by Handel - the ‘Sarabande’ with variations. It is more common for Halvorsen’s other adaptation of Handel’s Passacaglia to be performed and as we have played this many times in concert, it felt right to give the Sarabande an airing. Having rehearsed together for an hour before the concert, we arrived at the church to find an audience of around 60 people, already enjoying glasses of wine and preparing to enjoy the evening.
From the first piece it was obvious that the standard of playing overall was very good and perhaps it was all this fine music making which tempted out a rather unexpected audience member - a ‘glis glis’ who seems to live in the bell tower. As we began the first movement of the Mozart, those seated at the back began to notice it climbing down from the roof and making itself at home in one of the overhead heaters - it seemed to sit transfixed until the end of the slow movement and when we began the Handel / Halvorsen piece, it started to become restless - running down the wall and across the back of a pew. People sitting on the back row who had a very clear view of the proceedings were apparently holding their breath as at one point it looked as though it was going to climb down a ladies back - which would no doubt have been a very unexpected experience whilst watching a classical performance (certainly not heard of this happening at the Albert Hall Proms!). Although Adrian and myself were blissfully unaware of all this activity, the audience began to notice as the glis glis ran around between the pews and made it’s way purposefully up the aisle where it was finally spotted by Adrian who (despite being rather shocked by what he thought was a rat) maintained professionalism and carried on playing.
Luckily, the animal seemed to disappear in the second half, leaving everyone to enjoy the traditional Proms favourites such as ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ without incident. Glis Glis are reportedly quite shy so perhaps this particular one is a fan of Mozart and was tempted out of the roof to come and listen!
Here is a clip of us playing (before the glis glis appeared) - Mozart’s Duo for Violin and Viola in G - First Movement, Allegro
We look forward to returning to St Giles on the 10th December for the first in our Christmas concert series entitled ‘I Saw Three Ships’ - featuring works from our newly released disc of Carols for String Quartet
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