THE Revolutionary Drawing Room specialises in music of the late 18th to early 19th centuries with gut-stringed period instruments.

Turbulent times in Europe when traditions were seriously challenged and changed were mirrored in the musical output, with new tastes, styles and forms in composition as well as new instruments.

As well as referring to the period of the music, the group’s name reflects the environment in which it was played – the drawing rooms of Europe.

The musicians were Adrian Butterfield and Kathryn Parry on violin; Rachel Stott, viola; and Ruth Alford, cello.

The programme began with the Quartet in E flat major by Vanhal, a humbly-born Czech composer, who started his career as a village organist and choirmaster before finding fame in Vienna teaching illustrious patrons and composing copiously. He produced more than 70 symphonies and 100 quartets.

This was followed by Mozart’s Quartet in C major, K465 (Dissonance’), the last of a set of six string quartets he composed in the early 1780s, dedicated to Haydn and displaying all the genius associated with Mozart.

Haydn’s Quartet in B flat minor in four movements, includes a delightful Menuetto, very clever and sweet with a bright, lively, fastmoving, energetic finale.

There was a great atmosphere of familiarity and fun in the interval as the players mingled with the audience and answered questions about the instruments. Ruth Alford, who comes from Nunthorpe and first studied cello there, was delighted to meet her original cello teacher who was in the audience.

The performance was warmly applauded by a capacity audience

Irene MacDonald