The Schubert Ensemble of London, recognised as a chamber group that ranks amongst the very best, was back for the Bermuda Festival after a three-year interval.

Those who had heard this fine group of musicians perform during their last visit in 2012 knew that this would be an evening of superb music.

The Ensemble, which consisted of violinist Simon Blendis, viola Douglas Paterson, cellist Jane Salmon and pianist William Howard, (the double bass, played for the Ensemble by Peter Buckoke, was not a part of this programme) gave the audience at the Earl Cameron Theatre at City Hall on Tuesday evening more than that — they heard a thorough exploration of a small handful of remarkable piano quartets, and not especially well known ones, either. This was a programme with devoted enthusiasts in mind.

The Ensemble’s pianist Mr Howard, who played a solo performance earlier in the week, gave extensive and instructive introductions to the pieces — and the sense that these were something of a surreptitious pleasure for the Ensemble which he knew this audience would enjoy.

Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat was the second of just three pieces on the programme.

Mr Howard described it as an “exultant work full of song and dance,” and explained that the composer was inspired by the folk music of his central European home.

Mr Howard explained: “There is wonderful colour throughout and a range of textures and effects,” and in the hands of the Ensemble, it had those elements in quantities.

The interpretation of this piece had to have been the result of a great deal of careful thought in order to create such a precisely drawn, richly-toned topography, the playing of which sounded completely spontaneous.

Dvorak’s musical ideas here, at times sounding modern and at others from earlier schools, were surely heightened by the musicians’ dynamic interplay while expressing the melodies that danced through it, giving rise to a captivating performance.

The Ensemble gave another thoughtful and cohesive performance playing Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet No 1 in C minor.

Faure, in his later years, was described as artistically austere, and while this piano quartet was written at an earlier time of his life, one can hear his steps towards modernism and away from the Romantic school.

Faure composed part of the piece as his relationship with a girl he hoped to marry had ended. His deep sadness is evident in the third movement, the allegro, where the cello surfaces to provide the temperament of the music, which, as the programme notes describe, expresses strong yet suppressed emotion.

The Ensemble imbued this emotionally difficult movement with a dignity and grace through its undulating undercurrent that surges below the dominant sense of painful anguish.

However, it opened quite differently, with a sonorous romanticism that built at times to high passion, while the second movement, the scherzo, features a reappearing, impish little melody and is fast-paced and light-spirited.

A lively, intense and passionate allegro molto gave the pianist the opportunity to show the audience a thrilling, virtuoso performance with which to end the piece, and the concert.

The programme had started in a contemporary way with a work written for the Ensemble by a young composer, Huw Watkins.

It was an inspired decision to begin the concert with Piano Quartet, composed in 2012, allowing the audience to absorb extremely fresh musical ideas before hearing the Dvorak and Faure, both of whom were amongst the earliest of modern musical thinkers.

Mr Howard said: “We like Huw very much as a composer in that he writes for the instruments.

“Before he wrote this piece, he came and heard us play several times.”

He explained Piano Quartet, in a single movement, provides the audience with some aspects of its construction to listen for.

The composer gave each of the string instrumentalists’ parts two notes, which evolve into a three note pattern taken up by the whole ensemble.

The piece has some dazzling moments, dramatically ranging in mood and tempo from a slow section, imbued with mystery, quite suddenly crashing into several frenetic bars, before resolving into a peaceful segment, and repeating the pattern.

As the Schubert Ensemble they are known for their performances of works from the Classical and Romantic periods, but displayed their versatility with this piece by Watkins.

They gave the modern composition harsh passion, strong definition — yet nonetheless, as the audience was to hear in the earlier period pieces, it was also, and as always with these musicians, an “ensemble” performance.

The Ensemble: from left, Peter Buckoke, Douglas Paterson, Simon Blendis, Jane Salmon and William Howard