The Florestan Piano Trio is one of the great British trios and certainly showed off its skills at the Music Room.

Amid the splendour of the Prince Regent's palace, the trio performed Beethoven and Mendelssohn and a new work by John Casken specially commissioned by Brighton Festival.

Beethoven's Trio in G major is a youthful piece and the Florestans showed it to be a boisterous, fiery piece, full of youthful zest.

They performed it with verve and imagination and showed the same enthusiasm for the Mendelssohn Trio in C minor.

Pianist Sally Tomes, violinist Anthony Matwood and cellist Richard Lester are all rich in individual ability and their sum is far greater than their parts.

They played with what seemed to be a telepathic link between them. It was sensitive playing that, certainly in the classics, hit the mind and lifted the spirit.

John Casken's piece I found sombre and sometimes severe. Yet it had immediate accessibility and a drive that surprised me.

But although dark, it had some glimpses of sunshine within it and gave me an instant feeling that I wanted to hear it again, almost immediately.