THREE musical B's? The combination of Bach, Beethoven and Pierre Boulez made for an especially happy buzz in last night's recital by France's leading string quartet.

Boulez's 80th birthday (on March 25) is more than enough excuse for playing all eight of the "chapters"' in his Livre, the work that marked him out as the musical enfant terrible of post-war Paris.

Interwoven with them were three numbers from Bach's Art of Fugue, which complemented the mathematical complexities of the Boulez. After Bach, there was nowhere to go but Beethoven, whose own most lavish excursion into fugal territory was the Grosse Fuge, Op 133. So all three composers were heard breaking new ground.

What made the evening so exciting was the group's daredevil approach. In the opening Bach, they kept their powder dry. But not for long. Their smooth restraint was deceptive. The Boulez clearly aroused their sense of drama. Plucked notes were especially accented, as each number seemed more urgent than its predecessor.

The pent-up tension all came flooding out in the Beethoven after the break. This was not the most polished performance, but it made the hair stand on end, exactly as it disturbed that first audience in 1826. We knew, then, just how thrilling "contemporary" music can sound.

Returning to Boulez at the close, it was possible to hear his cutting-edge technique from a new perspective, that of the irreverent, angry iconoclast. Just like Beethoven.

The festival continues until March 20. The box office phone number is 01904 658338.

Updated: 10:55 Wednesday, March 09, 2005