THE combination of a brand new string quartet with one by Shostakovich, even alongside a sweetener of late Mozart, is not an obvious crowd-puller to a quartet based in Glasgow. But these are no ordinary works and the Fejes (‘Fay-esh’) is no ordinary group.

All are members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. They commissioned the new work from the East Anglian composer Christopher Wright, having enjoyed playing his orchestral music. This quartet, his fourth, is subtitled Beacon Fell, after a Lancashire beauty-spot.

Whatever its physical associations, it is deeply passionate, infectiously so. Its opening movement alternates violence and serenity, powerful rhythms contrasted with a deeply lyrical vein. These set the scene for the whole work. Chuckles of pizzicato weave in and out of the muted Scherzo, which briefly conjures the Vaughan Williams of On Wenlock Edge.

But this is not derivative music. It has an elegiac anger in the third, slow movement, which eventually acquiesces into a reluctant calm heralded by a cello recitative, and there are frightening cross-accents and strong motor-rhythms in the finale – none of which held any terrors for the Fejes, who played with compelling panache throughout. They record all four Wright quartets next month. I can’t wait.

Their Mozart piece – his last, K.590 – had a similar clarity, even in the wilder harmonic swirls of its finale. Shostakovich’s big-boned Second Quartet sometimes bordered on stridency. It mattered not: its vivid violin recitative, eerie waltz and relentless final dance were cumulatively breathtaking.