Bells to ring in Christmas prelude

A Perth church is to mark the lead up to Christmas with two concerts.

The carilloneur at St John’s Kirk, Dr Ian Cassells, will hold the first of two Advent recitals tomorrow. It will begin at 12.30pm.

The second recital will begin at around 4pm, following the civic carol service, which runs from 3pm, on Sunday.

The kirk will be open to the public during the recitals so that people can hear the music as well as see Dr Cassells on the large screens in the kirk.

The bells can also be clearly heard from the streets and cafes around the kirk where copies of his programme will be available.

St John’s has more bells than any other church in Britain – a total of 63 – although not all of them are still played.

The recitals will be informal and it will be possible to come in and out of St John’s throughout the 40–45 minutes that Dr Cassells will be playing.

The performances round off an exciting year for Dr Cassells, who was Great Britain’s delegate to the “carillon Olympics” in Barcelona, where he gave two recitals.

He has also played York Minster and the world-famous Carillon Tower of Bruges, as well as St Andrews Church in Dundee.

The 16 bells in St Andrew’s, which are arranged in three tiers in a special framework, are played by one person at a keyboard in a room below.