There are few string quartets that radiate such cool confidence as the Paris-based Quatuor Diotima, the latest in the growing line of ensembles-in-residence at the university.

Wednesday’s programme saw them begin on home ground and progress to very late Beethoven, via Thomas Simaku’s Fourth Quartet (2011), which is dedicated to them.

Any composer writing a string quartet inevitably invites comparison with Haydn, Beethoven and Bartok, to name a few of the greats in this genre. It is a daunting tradition. Simaku wisely does not try to do too much and he makes clever use of silence (though his indigestible programme-note seemed more geared to dazzle than inform).

Much of the piece hovers teasingly on the threshold of audibility, often very high, tight tremolos sprinkled with jagged little chord-clusters that dart in and out. Its pulseless texture demands immense concentration from listeners and players alike: the Diotima responded with conviction and control.

Restraint had been the watchword in the Ravel: its spectral opening announced watercolours rather than oils. Yet every accent was made to count, every voice keenly weighted, with pizzicatos perfectly in place. Only its finale had a little too much politesse to be fully ‘agité’.

Intimacy and understatement carried through into Beethoven’s Op 131, his last completed quartet. Miraculously, the Diotima were able to conjure mounting intensity throughout the piece. The first Allegro was frisky, even fanciful, the Presto jocular after the dark fugue, the finale tightly rhythmic: a compelling ride.