Review: Endellion String Quartet *****

Unlike the devil, the viola seldom has the best tunes. But Britten is kind to his old instrument in his First Quartet, allowing it to stoke the drama, to sing sweetly, to add an edge of menace.

This concert would alone have been memorable for this superb performance, brilliant in organisation, passionate in argument.

But there was much more: a tight, bright account of Haydn's Quartet op 33, No 1 to start with and Beethoven's Op 130 to close, with the Grosse Fugue to add a certain marathon quality.

The ensemble has been together for more than 30 years, yet we can still admire the freshness of its playing, its visible delight in discovery, its musical stamina. The manner in which Haydn's playful motifs were exchanged emphasised the extraordinary rapport between these four. But then Beethoven's fiercely tough B flat quartet would have been impossible without it. Ardent, pessimistic, ecstatic, rebellious, manic: its moods were reflected in an evening of disciplined brilliance.

Andrew Watkinson, Ralph de Souza, Garfield Jackson, David Waterman: musicians to honour.