ON paper, the Sterling Trio’s menu for the British Music Society last Friday looked to offer a succession of bite-sized snacks, Classic-FM style. Such meals have their place, but tend to have little to really get your teeth into.

In the event, this talented threesome – flute, clarinet and piano – covered a spectrum of styles from Baroque to boundary-bashing with remarkable versatility. When Elizabeth Poston rubs shoulders with Bach you are on a roller coaste, but the Sterlings cushioned it well.

Poston’s Trio (1958) was in fact harmless enough, livened by a skittish scherzo and a snappy hornpipe. The group’s sense of humour shone brightest in Malcolm Arnold’s Suite Bourgeoise (1940), where the teenage composer spoofs several contemporary styles, after the example of Walton’s Façade. The Sterling milked it playfully, not least its sentimental ballad.

At the other extreme, Bach’s G major Trio Sonata, BWV1038, with clarinet replacing violin, was crisply phrased, given a lively foundation by Lauren Hibberd’s immaculate, staccato piano. The woodwinds danced through its final Presto with considerable panache.

Dance featured elsewhere, too. Having spent his early years collecting folk tunes, Bartók slipped easily into composing in ethnic idioms. Seven of his 40 Romanian Dances here playfully alternated the earthy with the wistful. A group of Brahms’s better-known Hungarian Dances was equally zesty.

A filmic bonbon by York graduate Lenny Sayers, Music For The Imagination, typified this group’s everywhere adventurous spirit and fearless technique. Truly a sterling spread.