Chamber Music

St Mary Magdalene's is well known locally for the outstanding concerts held twice a year. The foundation of these concerts is the Hampden Quartet, a talented quartet of young musicians, two of whom, Alexandra and Charlotte Reid, grew up in the area and have maintained their strong links with their church. Many excellent musicians from the Royal Academy of Music have played at our Chamber Music Concerts. Recent concerts have included Brahms' dramatic String Quartet in C Minor and Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden".

While recently surveying the posters adorning the platform of the Bakerloo line at Oxford Circus, I found myself indignant at an advertisement enticing tourists to visit Austria. A few cosy chalets were pictured amid imposing mountains, in front of which stood the members of a string quartet. The text read “Visit Austria: where even the smallest villages are home to great music”. The tiny village of Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire may not stand aloft Alpian peaks (though the Chilterns could give them a run for their money), but it certainly does play host to a concert series that would save many an English music enthusiast their airfare to Austria. At the heart of the village is the beautiful Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which provides the idyllic setting for concerts that are now achieving wide renown: only a few weeks ago someone as far away as Chorleywood in Hertfordshire asked me where I was from, and, upon my saying “Great Hampden” then proceeded to exclaim: “Oh, that’s where they have the concerts!”.