Belcea Quartet *****

THE Belcea Quartet is currently Britain's hottest young string quartet. The past year or two has been a rollercoaster period for the ensemble, with burgeoning engagements around the world and highly acclaimed recordings. In October, it takes up its prestigious position as resident quartet at London's Wigmore Hall.

Yesterday, however, the group made its all-important Edinburgh Festival debut at the Queen's Hall. And what a debut performance! Haydn's Op33 No2, the so-called Joke Quartet, could not have asked for more perceptive and polished treatment. The presentation was pristine and spring-like, the intonation perfect, and the rapport among the group playful but neatly judged.

As for Haydn's whimsical punch line – an impish and unpredictable disintegration of the final few bars – it was classy but funny, and it kept you guessing right to the end, just as Haydn would have wanted it.

There was nothing amusing in what was to follow. Jancek's Second String Quartet, Intimate Letters, may inhabit much of the frenetic world of his earlier Kreuzer Sonata quartet – played at the start of this week by the Zehetmair Quartet – but the element of frustration and pent-up emotion, brought on by fear of oncoming death and female infatuation, is much more vivid here.

That was the overwhelming message in a performance which catapulted us back and forth between the music's mysterious and grim neurosis and screaming mental pain with disturbing and imaginative ease. It was a draining experience.

Refreshment came in the form of Benjamin Britten's splendid Second Quartet. Again, the performance was totally in tune with the mood. Its opening feline agility and guile, and the gloriously ambivalent ending – a Brittenesque version of the Haydn joke? – framed a performance of exceptional skill. Hear this impressive ensemble again.

Tomorrow, Queen's Hall