Music performed in St Michael And All Angels Church starts off at an advantage.

Sound and setting combine to enhance all manner of performance but most notably in the classical repertoire performed for a Brighton Fringe concert series of chamber music by Benedict Cruft, violin, George Robertson, viola, Anthony Pleeth, cello with Paul Gregory, guitar.

In the lofty spaces of St Michael’s, their harmony and skill created an atmosphere of intimate music making: a musical conversation to which the hushed audience were privileged to belong. Mozart/Bach Adagio And Fugue K404a, is controversial. It is certainly a Bach fugue, but did Mozart write the stately opening Adagio, reflecting the fugal subject, in homage to Bach? Scholars are divided.

Clearer in genesis is the Haydn Quartet For Guitar And Strings, a rare and charming piece with every hallmark of the master - folk tunes, minuets, trios, a dazzling finale and a particularly beautiful Adagio.

In conclusion, one of Mozart’s major chamber compositions, Divertimento K. 563, a misnomer if ever there was one, for this was a substantial symphonic work of five movements with a deceptive simplicity which is so hard to play well. An outstanding performance by four wise, experienced and gifted musicians.

Four stars