Performing the complete cycle of Beethoven's string quartets is effectively a rite of passage: the Belcea Quartet, established in 1994, only embarked on it last year. Last month, they played the cycle of 16 quartets over 10 days at Vienna's Konzerthaus, and that has clearly informed the early Op 18, No 5 and the late quartet Op 130 in this recital. While the serene poise of leader Corina Belcea gives the ensemble its characteristic aura, here we heard the kind of expressiveness and authority signalling progress into a higher league.

Embracing the extremes implicit in late Beethoven, they brought a vibrant intensity to Op 130 and the monumental Grosse Fugue, which was the composer's original finale to the quartet and, in the central cavatina, a transcendent beauty.

The 20th anniversary of the death of Angela Carter was marked in a concert curated by writer Marina Warner and pianist Joanna MacGregor. Carter's capacity for profundity and playfulness ought to have made a good foil for Beethoven, yet this interleaving of readings and music, however well-intentioned, would surely have drawn an acerbic response from Carter. MacGregor's tenure as Bath's artistic director has seen highly imaginative collaborations, so it was unfortunate that, in her final festival, this was not one of them. The premiere of MacGregor's own setting of a cycle of Seven Unpublished Poems by Carter was a curious affair. Featuring piano (MacGregor), self-styled diva Bishi (whose album Nights at the Circus was inspired by Carter's novel) singing and playing electric sitar, accordionist Martynas Levickis, percussionist Genevieve Williams and shakuhachi player Kiku Day (referencing Carter's seminal time in Japan), the music added nothing meaningful to the words. Harriet Walter's exemplary readings were tribute enough.