CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF SALT LAKE CITY, Brentano Quartet, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, Dec. 4

The Brentano Quartet has been a fairly frequent guest in Utah. And except for their most recent appearance last December at Weber State University, at which their playing was mediocre at best, the group has lived up to its reputation as one of today’s foremost quartets.

That position was reaffirmed Tuesday at its Salt Lake City concert, sponsored by the Chamber Music Society. The foursome’s playing was driven and dynamic and full of rich expressiveness. They put their extraordinary technical skills on display and, unlike last year’s performance in Ogden, they also showed that they are wonderfully musical interpreters as well.

It was a marvelous program they played in Libby Gardner Concert Hall. Starting out with a set of four fantasias by Henry Purcell, they easily switched gears and played two works by Ludwig van Beethoven: the early Quartet in G major, op. 18, no. 2, and the magnificent Quartet in B flat major, op. 130, with the imposing Grosse Fuge closing  movement.

The highlight of the evening was their account of the op. 130. It takes a quartet of exceptional musicality to capture the depth of expressions and emotions in this work, and they certainly delivered a performance that was impassioned and infused with finely crafted lyricism and subtle shadings in dynamics. Their musical gestures were broad as befitting this work. And delving into the inner workings of the music as they did, they gave a perceptive and sensitive reading.

The massive Grosse Fuge was no less impressive than the rest of the quartet in the way the Brentanos approached it. Its sectionalism can be difficult to grasp, but the players brought a cohesiveness to their account that felt right and natural. It was a tour de force performance that remained sensitive to the music.

The four Purcell fantasias and Beethoven’s G major Quartet were the perfect counterbalance to the intricacies of the B flat major Quartet. And in these works, the Brentanos captured the finely crafted phrasings and delicate lyricism wonderfully.