The Brodsky Quartet began in 1972, when four Middlesbrough 10-year-olds decided to play on after youth orchestra finished on Friday nights.

Fifty-four years later, violinist Ian Belton and cellist Jacqueline Thomas are still on board, while Cassidy has notched up more than 40 years.

By that yardstick, Barton and Brodsky is a relatively recent collaboration, but both Barton and the quartet have a long history of engagement with music across the cultural spectrum and they clearly enjoy each other’s musical company.

The Brodsky Quartet and William Barton. Photo © Laura Manariti

Barton open the program with an improvised solo, which leads directly in Henry Purcell’s Fantasia in D minor. The sweet, soft opening notes have a magical quality and the hall is still.

Barton then rejoins the quartet for two musical soundscapes: Peter Sculthorpe’s Jabiru Dreaming and Robert Davidson’s Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island). Hearing the two works together highlights the yidaki’s tone, rhythm and dramatic heft, and the many ways in which the string sounds can be manipulated to create musical images of the land.

Leader Krysia Osostowicz introduces Janáček’s first string quartet, subtitled The Kreutzer Sonata, explaining that it was inspired by Tolstoy’s story of...