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Being present at a string quartet concert inclines one even more than usual to evaluate the relative merits of live and recorded music. The core repertoire is by now available in so many different versions, and to such a high standard, that a quiet evening at home with the recording of choice might seem to be the best proposition.

Not, however, when set in the balance against the attractions of an event such as the recital given for Dolgellau Music Club in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor on Friday 13th March by the Barbirolli Quartet. Here you had the ‘buzz’ of a packed hall eagerly awaiting one of the musical highlights of the season; a superb acoustic in which to appreciate music of this timbre; and the bonus of seeing four beautiful and elegantly attired young ladies set about tackling some very challenging pieces with aplomb and intense visual interaction as they responded to each other’s playing. Given that the playing was to a very high standard indeed, few would have been left yearning for the home hi-fi.

The opening Haydn Quartet (in B flat major Op. 64 No. 3) set the tone for the whole performance, with a fine blend of energy, delicacy and warmth of response to the music’s emotional core. (“What a perfect start to the week-end” was one comment as the last movement came to a close.) There was evident relish in the delivery of Haydn’s touches of musical wit (such as trills in the ‘wrong’ place or an ending played as a beginning), and the lyricism of the slow movement was given breadth and depth.

Ravel’s Quartet of 1902 (though it still sounds fresh and new) is one of the wonders of the repertoire, not least for its astonishing second movement energised by rapid, resounding pizzicati and helter-skelter rhythms. The Barbirolli Quartet brought this off as if to the manner born. What was most notable of all, however, was their acute responsiveness to the very French and (dare one say it?) feminine nuances in the piece as a whole, with gently moulded shaping of the most ethereal phrases, and rare attention to the demands of a real pianissimo. (The late Joan Wyn Hughes was always urging our young musicians to respect dynamics in this way.) This was a distinguished rendering of a highly distinctive piece.

Joe Cutler’s one-movement ‘Folk Music’ made an effective opening to the second half and paved the way for the programme’s masterpiece among masterpieces, Brahms’s Quartet No. 1 Op. 51 in C minor. Here orchestral sonorities and an even more robust strength of sound are required, and the quartet members (each of them with top-level orchestral experience) were equal to the task, whilst at the same time bringing out unexpected ‘chiaroscuro’ subtleties of expression as if inspired by the Ravel. Violinists Rakhi Singh and Katie Stillmann provided rich and soaring melodies in abundance, and Ella Brinch (viola) and Victoria Simonsen (cello) added all the necessary depth of tone in their solo opportunities, yet remained scrupulously within the tonal palette of the group as a whole. All in all, memorable delivery of some wonderful music.

The Club is once more indebted to the Countess of Munster Musical Trust for sponsoring such fine young musicians. Our final concert, at 7.30pm on Friday 3rd April, will be given by Simon Kohli (sarod - a type of sitar) and friends.

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