You can count on not much more than one hand the string quartets that are considered capable of creating magical and soul-moving experiences. The Tokyo Quartet is certainly one.

The conjunction of Beethoven and Mendelssohn seems to be a fruitful one. At the Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson in February, Mendelssohn's Op 13 quartet was paired with Beethoven's Op 131.

Curiously, the Tokyo Quartet's handling of Beethoven's F minor quartet, nicknamed "Serioso", emphasised its warmth, sunshine, gaiety even, while the reputedly sunny Mendelssohn's homage to Beethoven was deeply felt and musically mature. And they played with a seriousness and ardour that made it sound rather like a masterpiece. Their magnificent instruments made their mark too.

True, the Beethoven had begun with immensely arresting strokes, yet in the first two movements it was more sonorous and soulful than most performances. The last two movements had a Haydnesque quality, the "serioso" quotient quite small, and absent in the surprising coda. The performance combined light spirit with a deep beauty of expression.

Between these two classical columns crouched the fifth String Quartet of Australian Carl Vine; an attractive, well- argued work that glances at the avant-garde, but gives much more attention engaging his audience.

It is a welcome piece of pure music that is about itself, such as pre-Romantic composers wrote, concerned more with balance and design than with exploring the potential of instruments or intellectual games.

The programme was coherent and satisfying, and the playing magisterial, but more importantly spiritual, heartfelt, miraculously integrated and profoundly moving.

The big audience's long applause after the Mendelssohn was acknowledged with an encore, the Finale of Haydn's quartet Op 50 No 6.