Archive for December, 2010
Concert in St Giles Church, Cheddington
Today we’re rehearsing for this evening’s concert in St Giles Church, Cheddington - our home village. The evening will feature lots of carols and Christmas music and we’re expecting a very full church as the concerts are always very popular. As the quartet are playing the same concert for a recital series in Essex next [...]
Angels from the Realms of Glory
The words to the Christmas carol ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’ were written by the English poet James Montgomery and first published in 1816. Since that time, the carol has been sung to a variety of melodies but the most famous one we know today is French in origin,’Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes’.
When I [...]
The First Nowell
The First Nowell (or First Noel) is one of the most popular tunes associated with Christmas but is however a potentially tricky one for the arranger. The reason is that the tune seems to oscillate between A major and D major chords and this can give it the feeling of being ’samey’ or a little [...]
Wedding at the Dew Pond Restaurant, Old Burghclere
On Friday evening, myself and Tony (cellist) entertained 48 wedding guests at the Dew Pond Restaurant on the Hampshire / Berkshire border. For an intimate gathering, this has to be one of the nicest places we have ever been asked to play in, with a real warmth and atmosphere that makes people feel very welcomed. [...]
A lovely phone call today….
We just had a phone call from a lady who had heard our version of ‘Silent Night’ played on Classic FM this morning and wanted to order a disc. Although we have distribution in the USA, the disc is only available as a download from itunes, amazon etc or directly from our website in the [...]
Two Noels by Charpentier
These two works by M.A Charpentier are twinned on our disc and were originally written for organ, intended to be performed as part of Midnight Mass (messe de minuit). These two carols are unique on the disc because they were direct transcriptions from Charpentier’s original work and very little was done to them apart from [...]
Review on Musicweb International
We were delighted today to receive a review of our disc on Music Web International - a website devoted to reviews and discussions about classical music, jazz and concerts. The review is part of a group feature on Classical Christmas CD’s and the complete article can be read here.
We were particularly delighted that the reviewer [...]
