Candlelight: Queen vs. ABBA

Queen and ABBA make an oddly convincing pairing for a string quartet. The songs are already built around huge melodies and dramatic changes, so hearing them stripped down to strings puts the focus back on the writing rather than the production. The program runs from “Mamma Mia” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” to “Don’t Stop Me Now” and “We Will Rock You,” which is enough variety to keep the set from feeling like a single-band tribute. St. Ignatius Church is also a better fit for this format than a standard concert room, with the quartet's arrangements taking on a more intimate quality in the church setting. If you know these songs almost too well, that is the reason to go: the familiar material gets reshaped just enough to sound fresh without losing what made it stick in the first place.