Jethro Tull’s founder, Ian Anderson, John O’Hara, and the Carducci Quartet are set to release Jethro Tull – The String Quartets, a selection of 12 re-imagined Jethro Tull classics, allowing Tull fans and classical music fans to enjoy the band’s extensive catalog in a new way. The album will be available in the United States on March 24, 2017 via The End Records/BMG. A 2017 global tour will accompany the release.
“‘Ring Out These Bells’ was written for the Songs From The Wood album as a reference to the winter solstice pagan festival and the latter day transplanted Christian notional birth of the Biblical Jesus, but then the record company thought that we should release it as a Christmas single,” says Ian Anderson. “After a futile attempt to record a simpler, catchier version, we reverted to the original recording. It was released just too late to make the Top Ten charts in time for Christmas. But it has remained a radio play staple in the radio playlists for Christmas ever since.
This new string quartet version captures the spirit of the original recording but with a really authentic Christmas Classical interpretation with the flute and a bit of the vocal sections of the familiar version. I can just feel the mistletoe quivering in anticipation of a quick kiss and no tell.”
About The Carducci Quartet:
Winners of international competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition 2007 and Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition, this Anglo-Irish quartet has appeared at prestigious venues across the globe including the Wigmore Hall, London; National Concert Hall, Dublin; Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen; Carnegie Hall, New York and Library of Congress and John F Kennedy Center, Washington DC. Festival appearances include
Cheltenham Music Festival, Festival Messiaen au pays Meije, West Cork Chamber Music festival, Kuhmo Festival and the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Poland. The Carducci Quartet are highly celebrated for their interpretation of contemporary repertoire, and are regularly invited to perform new works.