Classical Music Concert: Candlelight's Tribute to Fleetwood Mac at the National Justice Museum

The premise is simple: in a preserved location a small concert is held. And so, within the Victorian corridors of Nottingham's National Justice Museum, four musicians play. And on the occasion, it is the music of Fleetwood Mac that they bring to bear, between the benches of judge and jury. With the candlelight flickering around us, we hear it in a way we have never heard it before.  

Fleetwood Mac are, of course, a world famous British-American band dating back to 1967. With a list of successful albums as long as your arm, it would be difficult to know where to start with a retrospective. Tonight, concertgoers were treated to 14 of their greatest hits, including Little Lies, Gold Dust Woman and Landslide.   

This is the latest of the Candlelight performances. Set at a range of dates, and held either at the National Justice Museum or Nottingham Contemporary, each hour long show is dedicated to a specific musical talent: a band, a composer, a film soundtrack. In this instance, the music of Fleetwood Mac comes to us from the 41 Degrees Quartet. Four players with a note-perfect expertise over their bows and strings. 

The order of the performances are arranged in a careful setlist, so that even the most uninitiated listener such as myself, finds that the discography is made accessible and touching. These however were no mere instrumentals. All were clearly composed in their own right. The essence of the songs was unmissable but with it so was the unique interpretation that the quartet brought to the music themselves.

And their performance powerfully delivered the music. The composition, the ingenuity, its power and subtleness, not to mention its confidence. From a group clearly enjoying the relationship they were having with their source material. With the music rising and falling, at one moment playful, even comic, and others slowly heartbreaking. With all this contributing to a palpable emotional sincerity. Yet in thinking this, I worried, had I let hyperbole creep in? However, my thoughts were blown away when rapturous applause from a clearly awestruck audience threatened to overwhelm the beautiful hall.

And as I leave those hallowed corridors, I'm still thinking of the music. Wondering why the performers took styles with some songs and not others. They have left me curious. How do the musical choices I heard tonight fit into a wider understanding of the band’s history. I wonder what sort of people and what sort of situations could have provoked music like that. I quickly become determined to learn more. And yet I cannot seem to shake the feeling, that I will never hear it in the way I did on this fine candelit evening.

Candlelight: Tribute to Fleetwood Mac performed at the National Justice Museum on Saturday 7th of June 2025. Visit Fever Up to find our more about more candlight concerts coming up in Nottingham very soon.