A British foursome to remember

DICHOTOMOUS sound images -- at once emotionally captivating and technically astounding -- are the essence of great musical art and the main business of the stunning, unheralded British ensemble the Belcea String Quartet, which made its Southern California concert debut Tuesday night in Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

With consistent panache and brilliance, this 10-year-old, prize-winning foursome performed a deep and pleasing program of two Mozart works and Benjamin Britten’s haunting Third Quartet, plus a bright encore in the Menuetto from Mozart’s final composition in the genre, the Quartet in F.

No letdown of energy or intricate detailing lessened the impact of this concentrated delivery of musical insights. All the group’s virtues were on display in the opening work, Mozart’s Quartet in D, K. 499, the “Hoffmeister”: The playing was gutsy and mellifluous, delicate and bold, balancing deep concentration and easy intuition, ever bearing down while ever letting go.

The result was a kaleidoscope of Mozartean colors and was repeated in the evening’s closer, the composer’s “Dissonant” Quartet, K. 465, and in the thrills of the encore.

Similarly ear-opening was the centerpiece -- Britten’s final quartet, from 1975 -- a many-faceted, brave but not grim elegy encompassing five contrasting mood-bursts.

For their consistency, strength, virtuosity and single-mindedness, one cannot admire these young players overmuch. They are violinists Corina Belcea and Laura Samuel, violist Krzysztof Chorzelski and cellist Antoine Lederlin.