★★★★☆ Israeli quartet offers up staple fare, but perfectly served.

It’s hard to believe the Jerusalem Quartet is celebrating 21 years of music-making in 2016. The youthful spirits and visages of the four players defies that statistic, until you realise that first violin Alexander Pavlovsky was 16 when he started with the group, and at the time he was its oldest member! A quick bit of maths puts him at 37, the rest somewhere below that. But what maturity they convey, and that long collaborative experience was very much to the fore in this, their seventh tour for Musica Viva.

I’d have to admit the programme was a bit of a meat and potatoes affair – an early Beethoven quartet, a late Dvořák and a work by Ross Edwards that would count as ‘spicy’ anywhere other than here in Australia. With little angst on display, none of the works exactly plumb the depths. However, with playing this distinguished, a lightish repast should fit the bill for anyone wanting relatively simple food, lovingly prepared. If you haven’t heard them, the Jersusalems main strengths lie in their communicative powers, allied with lashings of first-rate technique. In their hands, fast movements are...