The Alberni Quartet clearly like it at Hay: this is their fifth visit in 16 years. On the first evening of a six-concert residency - there is a definite marathon factor in the festival's classical music - their relaxed approach dispelled any notion that this was the beginning of a long haul, and simply made one want to go with them every step of the way.

With due deference to Haydn's status as de facto father of the quartet medium, they began with the first of the Op 71 quartets, written for his second stay in London. There is nothing introverted about this music; Haydn, like the Alberni, was intent on communicating.

The quartet's seemingly spontaneous shaping of the phrases allowed the Canzonetta to sing, while having the lilting dance quality of a sicilienne. The quirky rhythms of the Scherzo were equally adroitly handled. By contrast, Puccini's Crisantemi, written to commemorate the death of a friend, was nostalgic without ever slipping into overly theatrical sentimentality.

The real substance of the programme came with Beethoven's Op 59 No 1 in F major, the first of the three Razumovsky quartets to be played during the residency. (When they restricted audience numbers for these St Mary's concerts, was the Radnorshire fire brigade thinking about the conflagration that destroyed Count Razumovsky's palace in early-19th-century Vienna?)

After the expansiveness of the first two movements, the melancholy in the F minor slow movement struck deep, the cello in particular bringing its own plangency to the theme. But there was sweetness and hope too, which then brimmed over in the finale. The pastoral mood was pervasive and, even if Beethoven had not annotated the sounds of nature here, the evening cantata from Hay's blackbirds was unconstrained.

At Salem Chapel, cellist Nick Cooper's late-night candlelit recital was not for the fainthearted (least of all the fire brigade). The six Bach unaccompanied cello suites, spanning two concerts, were his claim to the stamina stakes. Cooper delivered suites One, Three and Five with an austere determination. If a sense of the internal contrapuntal logic was sometimes absent, his strong rhythmic definition made up for it, and the Sarabande of the C minor suite had a majestic sweep.

&#149 The Alberni play Hay tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. Box office: 0870 990 1299.