The Kendal Midday Concert Club will, more often than not in the town hall, introduce the musical ‘great divide’ – brilliant young talent on stage and venerable sagacity in the auditorium.

So it was when the club played host to the youthful, exciting and enterprising Danté String Quartet, an ensemble whose reputation has been on the ascendancy since 1995, the year of its formation. It takes many years of dedicated hard graft before a chamber group can achieve the degree of excellence that characterises all truly outstanding ensembles but, already, the Danté exhibits many such features.

A programme of works by Haydn (Op.76 No.4) and Brahms (Op.51 No.2) presented a host of challenges most of which were surmounted with commendable aplomb. I admired, for instance, in the Haydn performance, the quiet, beautifully-sustained tonal blend of the opening bars of the first movement, a faithful regard throughout for the composer’s dynamic markings, the musicianly refinement that characterised the ensemble’s interpretation of the Minuet and Trio and the subtlety, almost everywhere in the work, of their phrasing.

The Romantic, richly textured Brahms piece rose to greater heights. There was fine individual playing from each of the players and they all demonstrated an awareness of their place in and responsibilities to the ensemble.

However, I found an inconsistency in the first violinist’s tone quality, particularly in the Haydn: at times it possessed a thinness and a hard edge, although on most occasions one could not have asked for a more honeyed sound. I found, too, an occasional bottom-heaviness in the ensemble as a whole.

My final word must, however, be one of high praise – a marvellous recital. Brian Paynes