There is an ever increasing interest in the music of Hans Gál - heightened last month when BBC Radio 3 chose him as its Composer of the Week. And when his music is played by the renowned Edinburgh Quartet we knew we were in for a sophisticated Sunday afternoon's concert. Members of the Hans Gál Society, including the composer's daughter and granddaughter, were out in force.
The programme consisted of four works, three quartets and a quintet. Juliette Bausor, one of Britain's leading flute players, took control of Mozart's Flute Quartet and the three strings accompanied for the work's three short movements.
Tristan Gurney, who has been the Edinburgh Quartet's leader since 2007, gave an enthusiastic introduction to the two Gál works neither of which had been yet been recorded by the Quartet. His reverence for Gál's work was apparent.
Spanish clarinettist Maximiliano Martin, and clearly a character, joined the Quartet for Gál's Clarinet Quintet. Composed in his later years in 1977 it was stimulated by a summer holiday walking the coast of Wales despite a serious fall the previous December. Immediately the sensational sophistication engulfs us as the clarinet takes the lead in the first movement and the strings dutifully follow. In the middle movement everybody is equal and the fun comes following the cello's opening of the final movement.
After the interval Juliette Bausor joined the Quartet for Gál's Concertino for Flute and String Quartet which was composed in 1961 whilst he was in the Music Department of the University of Edinburgh. It was commissioned by Carl Dolmetsch. The first light and jaunty movement is followed by the lyrical hopping and skipping of the second. The third is more sleepy and we are brought to our senses by the fast final Rondo capriccioso.
And yet the Edinburgh Quartet wanted to be on their own and seemed delighted to be playing a party piece in Mendelssohn's String Quartet in F minor. There's a good romp in the Finale.
A delightful Sunday afternoon's music and an appreciative audience.