CONCERT goers and record collectors have a wonderful new ensemble to reckon with, the Atrium Quartet - violinists Alexey Naumenko and Anton Ilyunin, violist Dmitry Pitulko and cellist Anna Gorelova - who have already won prizes in important international competitions.

Sponsored by Western Power, Minehead Arts Society did well to catch them on their UK tour, for their concert was an exhilarating success.

These young Russians are virtuosos, technically superb and masters of the varieties of style in their programme - Haydn's delicate strength, Shostakovich's quirkiness and Tchaikowsky's sentiment. Their unanimity was faultless.

Second violinist and violist were as strong as their colleagues who in the nature of quartet writing have the most prominent roles to play. They played to each other as well as to us.

Haydn was in his late sixties when he wrote his opus 77 quartets. By 1799 he was the master of the form he had pioneered and refined. The intricate elusiveness of this F major work was beautifully realised in this performance.

We were allowed to hear an intimate discussion, with ideas put forward, commented on and transformed. The slow movement began with a duet for first violin and cello whose theme was soon elaborated and embellished. The last movement was taken at a gallop, the second violinist's excitement threatening to levitate him from his seat.

Shostakovich's Third Quartet was written in 1946 not long after his Ninth Symphony had been condemned by the Soviet leadership for its levity. As so often with Shostakovich it is hard to detect his tone of voice, to see, in the modern idiom, where he is coming from. Does apparent jollity mask frustration? Does cynicism lurk beneath solemnity?

However, the music is there to be enjoyed for its own sake. The first three movements are relatively light hearted; though there are some relentless passages, particularly in the third, there are also jaunty tunes and attractive rhythms. The fourth movement, a slow lament, seems shot through with sadness. Its hushed ending, with the viola's meditation gently supported by the cello, leads straight into the last movement.

In this two themes are well established before the cello introduces a third, a jovial march. This leads to a climax combining all this material with the sad theme from the previous movement, now played fortissimo, after which the music dies away to nothingness to end this enigmatic work.

The second of Tchaikowsky's three quartets opens with an adagio which keeps the listener guessing until it broadens out into a passionate moderato assai. The scherzo follows; its varied time signatures explain its hesitant, stuttering theme.

The trio in 3/4 time has a flowing melody announced on the first violin's G string. With its dark hues the slow movement confirms one's impressions of Tchaikowsky's symphonic scores; in weighty passages four players have to sound like a full orchestral string band.

The quartet ends with an allegro with two themes, the second a good broad tune. After each has been thoroughly explored a fugue is launched at a cracking pace by the second violin; then in a passage of exciting power the broad theme is blazed out against the striding arpeggios of the lower strings, after which a scampering coda brings the whole to a breathless conclusion.

The roar of approval which greeted this performance gave way to a storm of applause and a standing ovation. Twice re-called to the platform the Atrium players offered as an encore the famous Andante Cantabile from Tchaikowsky's First Quartet. Their fame will surely spread and it will be fascinating to track their progress.

DHG

5:14pm Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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