THOSE who braced the winds last Friday received a warm reception from the Brentano String Quartet at the first British Music Society of York concert of the year.

Decidedly sunny interpretations of Mozart, Bartók and Brahms were given by this polished quartet, resident at Yale School of Music.

Mozart’s String Quartet in B-flat, K.458, Hunt, is an impressive achievement for a composer enduring a three-year artistic struggle. Sprightly trills and forte-piano flashes abounded in the opening Allegro vivace assai, despite tempo fluctuations lending the pursuit a more sedate pace. First violinist Mark Steinbert led with understated poise in the Adagio, while the Allegro assai brimmed with camaraderie. It was a joy to see the players smile and sway as they played, too.

Violist Misha Amory and cellist Nina Lee drove Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85, to a biting climax next.

Weightier glissandi could have further intensified the work’s clash of folk and Modernist styles; even so, the Brentano’s vivid timbres and agility were compelling.

For a composer supposedly avoiding composing his first symphony, Brahms gave his String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Op. 67 a surprisingly frivolous character.

The Brentano captured its contentment with spacious phrasing, Amory shining elegantly in the Agitato - Trio. If occasionally seeming more placid than mischievous in the fourth movement, an energetic burst made for a convincing surprise ending.

Yet it is softer moments, like the long fade to silence closing the Andante, that linger most in the mind.

Review by James Whittle