Renowned Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova brought her own ensemble to open Brighton Festival's 2006 classical music section.

This 45-year-old violinist studied at the Moscow Conservatoire and won first prize in the Sibelius competition in Helsinki in 1980.

She also won the gold medal of the Tchaikovsky competition in 1982, which launched her on an international career as a soloist which has seen her perform with all the world's great orchestras.

She founded her ensemble in 1994 to reflect her admiration for the major chamber pieces and it, too, has propelled her to international success.

As an instrumentalist she is fiercely focused but has a style which is warm and smooth which echoes like silk on the skin. At her Glyndebourne debut on Sunday the ensemble maintained that warmth and smoothness in Beethoven's Septet and added a second violinist in the second half, a reading of Schubert's Octet.

The Beethoven was exquisitely done. It is a piece which cannot but hit the soul and her musicians, including Manuel Fischer-Dieskau - son of the legendary lieder singer Dietrich - who are all superb soloists and supported her with all the heart the piece inspires.

As for the Schubert, once again it was a fine performance but like most of this composer's chamber and orchestral music goes on far too long and really called for some extensive editing.