You certainly got good value for money at Monday evening's first festival recital in the music room at the Royal Pavilion.
First you got one of Britain's finest pianists, Leon McCawley, playing Piano Sonata in G Major, then a new work, Dragon, by the Brighton composer Alison Kay.
The first half ended with the quartet itself playing Shostakovich's String Quartet Number Seven.
In the second half, McCawley joined the quartet for a magnificent reading of Robert Schumann's epic piano quintet - all this and the opportunity to drink a glass of wine in the opulent Pavilion banqueting hall.
McCawley's account of the Mozart sonata was sublime. Like most of Mozart's music, it is superficially simple but on closer examination it is extremely complex and full of great tunes.
This quartet is splendidly exciting and energetic and I particularly enjoyed the Shostakovich, which comes close to being a cello concerto.
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