Greenwich International String Quartet Festival

Gongs and glasses filled with water generally aren't par for the course when you go to see a string quartet. But then, most string quartets don't attempt Crumb's surrealist musing Black Angels - a piece that gives new meaning to the phrase 'extended techniques'.

The occasion for such a recital was Greenwich International String Quartet Festival (GISQF), a three-day event that took place over the course of the weekend at Trinity College of Music in London.

The festival took in string quartet repertoire through the ages - a simple yet effective hook that allowed ensembles to celebrate the traditional as well as embrace the contemporary. I caught the final performance by the Smith Quartet - which features Nic Pendlebury, head of string faculty. It takes a certain sort of character to programme Volans, Crumb, Poppy and Reich for the final recital, but the fact that the performance was at one of the country's top conservatoires meant there was a good smattering of youth (I brought my 17-year-old sister who'd never experienced contemporary classical before and raved about it all the way home - another convert) - although my sources tell me the College's chapel had more takers for Haydn, Beethoven, et al on the previous Friday.

For me, the Crumb was undoubtedly the highlight, particularly as it's been one of my 'must see before I die' performances for a while. It was as chilling and challenging as I expected, and the venue (the old chapel) made for an eerie setting. Every extended technique in (and out) of the book featured: performers played with the 'wrong' side of the bow, used different parts of the fret and plucked with vigour that verged on violence.

This was the first time I've seen glasses 'played' in a formal performance (other than in the pub when you do that annoying trick of running your finger round the rim). There was something wonderful about the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the concept. Pendlebury coaxed some fascinating sounds with his bow from the water-filled goblets - trilling on strings with thimble-capped fingers and electric amplification further added to the already-colourful piece.

Elsewhere, I enjoyed hearing Poppy's Hatch and Volans' White Man Sleeps for the first time, the latter an interesting African-influenced piece that had been translated to the string quartet idiom. The recital concluded with a jaw-dropping performance of Reich's Different Trains - a reflection of the composer's experience of commuting between his parents after they separated when he was a young boy, contrasted with the Jews' dreadful treatment as they were carted off during the Holocaust. The piece features electronic tape with samples of Reich's governess, a retired porter and several holocaust survivors speaking about their experiences, mixed with various train sounds and effects. The Smith Quartet's interpretation achieved that difficult balance of delicacy and raw emotion, and the whole recital was truly intoxicating.