ALISON CROOSE King's Lynn Festival event at King's Lynn Town Hall

ALISON CROOSE

The series of five morning concerts got off to a flying start with a fine performance by this prize-winning quartet, and it was soon obvious why they are much in demand on the concert platform.

Fortified with a cup of coffee and home-made cake, the audience revelled in music which was at the heart of the festival's traditions and presented in the ornate Assembly Rooms, which provide an ideal setting for music from the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Haydn's String Quartet in D Major was acclaimed by historian Charles Burney as “full of invention, fire, good taste and new effects” and those characteristics were delivered with great expertise. From the restfulness of the largo to the spirited finale, the work was injected with feeling and verve for maximum pleasure.

Another work from the core of the string quartet's repertoire was Beethoven's E flat Harp, the title coming from an early pizzicato passage.

Though it proved a long struggle for Beethoven to compose the work, the contrasting elements resulted in a delightful whole. The musicians met the challenges of the beautiful adagio and the powerful and volatile scherzo before the flowing finale.