THE last of Hereford Concert Society’s events this season featured three works for the winning combination of piano (Benjamin Frith), violin (Robert Heard), viola (Louise Williams) and cello (Richard Jenkinson), a highly professional ensemble who delighted the audience with piano quartets by Dvorak and Brahms.

The Dvorak work, dating from the time of his popular eighth symphony, shared its happy and peaceful style with many deft touches in the scoring and the clear influence of Czech folksong and dance.

It would perhaps have been better placed after the interval, as a delicious musical dessert after the more sombre and intense work in C minor by Brahms (his third piano quartet).

The rich, sonorous tones of the Amati viola and the Grancino cello, both made in the 17th-century, were heard to perfection in the opening work, Gustav Mahler’s only extant piece of chamber music, thought to date back to his school days but unpublished until 1973.

It had a beautifully convincing maturity of style, with some grandiose piano writing which made it perhaps the most memorable item in the programme.

The balance between the instruments was finely-judged throughout.

Michael Smith