THEY certainly qualify as "exciting young British musicians" – as the York Concerts brochure put it – but there can be no doubt that the artists opening this new season have got where they are through a process of long, hard graft.

While the Benyounes String Quartet have been in steady ascent since their formation in Manchester nine years ago, clarinettist Julian Bliss, now in his mid-twenties, has featured on our stages and screens since childhood.

Their experience showed through the way in which they established themselves so quickly in the Lyons Hall, delicately unravelling the silvery textures of Glazunov’s Rêverie Orientale without breaking its spell.

While Bliss’s exquisite tone hovered effortlessly above, the Benyounes attuned themselves immaculately to one another’s sound, unafraid of exploring the softest dynamics.

This quiet fearlessness was also evident from the outset of their nuanced reading of Debussy’s G-minor String Quartet. Moving seamlessly between unified gestures and solo utterances, this was a performance of compelling understatement.

Conflict could be heard less in the troubling climaxes but rather more in ear-catching moments of unease: brief harmonic uncertainties and rhythmic disturbances.

Such moments proved fewer in Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet. As ethereally beautiful as Bliss’s playing proved, he never quite matched the Benyounes for versatility. Perfectly rounded though his sound was, it was hard not to long for sharper edges amid Brahms’s more enigmatic outbursts. The unity exhibited earlier now proved elusive. It may take a little more time for the spark in this collaboration to emerge.

Review by Richard Powell