Twenty-five years on and the Alban Berg Quartet still attempt, wherever possible, to programme the new along with the old. EMI's four-disc Anniversary Edition includes numerous testimonials, one of which – by Alfred Brendel – celebrates the ABQ's dedication to 'music of the century (work!) and to our musical past (beautiful!)'. Is that how they see it? 'There is some 20th-century music where the balance is more or less equal,' says first violinist Gunter Pichler, 'but I can honestly say that I understand why audiences generally prefer romantic music to the music of our own century. For us, of course, the approach is different: we are closer to the music; we work on it and are therefore in a better position to understand, even feel it.' Viola-player Thomas Kakuska agrees, although 'to prepare Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven is also sometimes hard work! And sometimes it's a beautiful thing to do, but advanced techniques have made modern pieces more complicated, which in turn makes for extra work during the learning process – which is , I think, what Brendel means. First encounters with modem music demand more time to "get" the notes, to read the piece and to realize what is written. After that, things perhaps aren't quite so different.' 

The ABQ's innovative CD programmes pose two obvious questions – first, whether it's best to record live, and second, whether the 'ancient and modern' repertoire idea (Haydn with Berio, for example) is commercially viable. Live recording, according to Pichler, tends to work best in romantic repertoire, although he relates how, on one occasion, his natural inclination to prefer a live take of a Beethoven slow movement to its studio counterpart proved unjustified. As to programming, Berio himself loved the Haydn-Berio-Haydn 'sandwich'. 'He heard us in rehearsal,' says Pichler, 'and he asked us what programming sequences we had planned. I told him that at La Scala we would present him with Haydn and Dvořák, but he immediately interjected with "My goodness, no, no". "OK ," I said, "then what about Janáček?" "No, no, no" he insisted, "No: this is the best combination – between two Haydn quartets!" And that's why we programmed it like that on the CD.'

Kakuska reminded me that the quartet always insist on playing repertoire for a whole season before taking it into the studio, and cellist Valentin Erben confirms Viennese audiences' approval of the 'sandwich' idea. But what of commercial considerations? I know of at least one collector who would view a Haydn/modern music coupling rather like a new shirt with a nasty stain. 'It's true,' confessed Pichler, 'and we've asked EMI to keep us informed about the sales figures. If the idea doesn't work, then we'll think again.' 

While on the subject of CDs, what about stingy playing times? The Janáček quartets disc plays for just 43'30". All agreed that this seems a particularly British obsession and that Viennese CD buyers don't worry about total timings. 'Time is a relative thing,' says Pichler sagely, 'you can have 40 minutes when you're happy, or 40 minutes when you're not. I don't just buy "music by the minute", I buy quality!' But why not add, say, a Martinů Quartet? 'You can't please everyone,' chuckles Kakuska. 'If we put Martinů between Janáček, someone will complain that we should have done more Martinů!'

And yet the ABQ have a notably rich repertoire. One figure who fascinates me personally is Max Reger, but there the members are divided. 'It becomes very difficult in cases of works that obviously have some quality, but that are not 100 per cent convincing, like – for me, at least – Reger...' Kakuska steps in, 'But then you see I like Reger very much, and yet when I discuss him with my violist colleagues – T abea Zimmermann, Gerard Causse or Kim Kashkashian – they don't. You always have this problem with Reger and Hindemith: someone should write a thesis on how Reger divides audiences and musicians!'

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