String Quartet Christmas Concert at St. Giles Church, Cheddington – Last night, we returned to play our fourth annual string quartet Christmas concert at St. Giles Church in Cheddington. Although we regularly play a¬†hand picked¬†selection of original string quartet Christmas Carol arrangements from our two highly popular albums, as many audience members attend every year, it’s always important to keep the concerts varied and new pieces of music are frequently arranged especially for each one.¬† This time, in addition to carols such as Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant, the Sussex Carol, the Carol of the Bells, Past Three O’clock and In Dulci Jubilo, I had arranged the Sleigh Ride by Leopold Mozart, a piece from Handel’s Messiah and part of Vivaldi’s Gloria. Here is our rendition of the ‘Carol of the Bells’:

As ever, the Church was very welcoming with plenty of heating, lots of small lanterns and candles, not to mention¬†the enticing smell of mulled wine and mince pies which were served in the interval.

Following the interval, the programme of music became lighter in nature and we entertained the audience with more upbeat carols and Christmassy pieces for string quartet. To assist us, we recruited audience members to jingle sleigh bells and release party poppers at key moments in the Radetzky March, to the great hilarity of all.

Many audience members commented that the concert had made them start to feel really festive and got them into the Christmas mood, so we very much hope to return to St. Giles again next year. Proceeds from the concert go towards the Cherish Your Church fund to maintain this small, rural Church.