ESTABLISHING a festival is no easy task. Now in its second year, the three-day York Chamber Music Festival is still finding its feet and – judging by Sunday’s limited turnout – its audience.

These things take time, however, and the foundations laid by its artistic director, cellist Tim Lowe, look promising indeed; the list of participants and patrons grows increasingly impressive.

In defiance of a chilly Guildhall, Sarah Trickey (violin) and Pierre Doumenge (cello) spearheaded a performance of jovial warmth with Haydn’s 1797 C-major piano trio.

Complimenting the delicate touch of Paul Feehan (piano), they exuded all the playful energy you might expect, but also found time to underline the more enigmatic facets of the work.

Doumenge was joined by Bartosz Woroch (violin), Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola), and Andrew Brownell (piano) for the altogether different colour palette of Frank Bridge’s atmospheric Phantasy piano quartet. A searing succession of solo episodes drew playing of incisive power.

But it was Brahms’s B-major piano trio that stole the show; Woroch, Lowe, and Carole Presland (piano) did not perform the work so much as inhabit it, shadowing its composer every note of the way.

With an expressive, muscular sound that almost seemed to halve the size of the hall, they soared to the heights of its opening movement and plunged to the bleak depths of its finale.

Blessed with such performances, this festival has all the ingredients required to become a jewel in the crown of York’s music scene. All, that is, except the audience it deserves.

- Richard Powell