The Park Lane Group has been showcasing young musical talent in its New Year series for more than 40 years now. With its insistence that the singers and instrumentalists confine their programmes to 20th- (and now 21st-) century repertory, the concerts fulfil a variety of functions, as well as giving a helpful push up the ladder to many of those selected.

Much of the music included in the programmes rarely gets an airing in the normal run of recitals, for their standard combination of solo instrument with piano - in Monday's opening two programmes, viola, violin and clarinet - implies a specific kind of 20th-century repertoire, music in which foreground and background, melody and harmony, still exert their authority.

So the composers for these PLG concerts are self-selecting to a certain extent, especially where British music is concerned, though by making a special feature of the works of Colin Matthews this year the organisers have selected someone who works within that mainstream tradition yet consistently produces fresh and distinctive results. Matthews had composed a new piece for the opening concert - Calmo for viola and piano is a rapt little birthday tribute (to the Dutch conductor Reinbert de Leeuw) which was superbly played by Lawrence Power and pianist Simon Crawford-Philips. At the age of 22 Power is already a remarkably mature viola player of big, rich tone and cool musical command. He couldn't do much with Errollyn Wallen's rambling Rapture, but made light of the unflashy difficulties of Ligeti's solo Viola Sonata.

If Power was the name to file away from Monday's concerts, the clarinettist Sarah Thurlow, who played more Matthews, as well as Martin Butler, Jonathan Harvey and the first performance of a beautifully judged new piece, Chorale, by her pianist Huw Watkins, is mightily accomplished too. It was hard to know what to make of the violinist Roman Mints, except that his taste in new music is pretty suspect - Sofia Gubaidulina's Der Seiltänzer is the kind of piece that everyone left behind 20 years ago and should never have been resurrected, while Artem Vassiliev's Story 1 for violin and tape is just a bundle of electronic cliches. And when he got down to something more substantial, in miniatures by Matthews and Lutoslawski, Mints' rhythmic control was not all it should have been either.

The PLG Young Artists Concerts continue at the Purcell Room, London SE1 (0171-960 4242), until Friday