It was appropriate that the six-day Sydney Festival celebration of J.S. Bach’s life and works should end in death. The Neilson Nutshell was dimmed and a smoky haze pervaded the main hall from which the seating had been removed, to be replaced by ranks of yoga mats.

Looking down from the gallery above, it was hard not to think of bodies laid out in a gymnasium after a disaster. But all disturbing thoughts were put aside when the four Ensemble Apex musicians – violinists Anna Da Silva Chen and Madeleine Jevons, violist Henry Justo and cellist James Morley – filed in and sat themselves down next to a gong and hanging cymbal and tables laid out with glasses of water and various small implements.

The quartet launched into a fragile and elegant arrangement of J.S. Bach’s song Come sweet Death, come blessed rest, with minimal vibrato, the Neilson’s beautiful acoustics highlighting the mellow tone of the strings.

The short piece then faded into an electronic haze before segueing into Italian experimental composer Carla Iannotta’s challenging work Dead Wasps in the Jam-Jar iii for string quartet and electronics. This 12-minute piece requires the players to attach paper clips and various mutes to their...