There was an excellent turnout of young and old concertgoers alike for the conclusion to this year’s BMS series on Thursday.

The Benyounes Quartet gave an accomplished recital of late works by Haydn and Mendelssohn, sat either side of Dvořák’s tenth.

It was pleasing to hear such attention to detail in Haydn’s Quartet in G major, the first from his final quartet collection, Op. 76.

A carefully balanced ensemble highlighted the subtlest nuances of colour and shape through individual expression.

The opening Allegro quickly blossomed into a buoyant conversation, the Adagio’s long lines tenderly spun, before a crisp Menuet. Expertly capturing its contrasting characters, the Benyounes offset the Finale’s threatening torrents with a witty ending.

The rhythmic patterns of Czech speech are a clear influence on Dvořák’s Quartet in E-flat major Op 51. The players really were talking to each other in the ‘Dumka’ second movement.

Violist Tetsuumi Nagata offered a poignant tone here, duetting with leader Zara Benyounes, who explored a rawer palette in the Romanza. Though the structural surprises of the Finale did not convince entirely, the audience were left in high spirits.

A sense of inconsolable grief permeated Mendelssohn’s last major work, the Quartet in F minor, composed after his elder sister’s death and shortly before his own in 1847.

With biting tremolo attacks, urgent trills, spectral timbres, and clamorous fortissimo passages, the Benyounes pushed the music close to breaking point. One wonders what could have been – but also where this exciting quartet will go next.

- James Whittle