Playing on the celebrated set of Strads collected by Paganini and previously used by the Cleveland Quartet, the Tokyo produce a splendid collective sound. The performances, polished and thoughtful, provide many insights into the inexhaustible world of Beethoven’s imagination.

In the Third Quartet’s second movement, played at an ideal mid-point between andante and allegretto, the music lilts without being so lively as to counteract the mood of melancholy. The following Minuet is delightfully suave and graceful, and the Tokyo are not tempted, as many quartets are, to increase the tempo for the vigorous trio; by remaining close to Beethoven’s metronome mark the crescendi acquire an inspiring air of grandeur. The Adagios of the first two quartets are allowed to flow – in No 1 especially this makes everything fall naturally into place, without the stiffness and formality that can afflict some passages.

Yet, despite these and many more virtues, I wouldn’t place these CDs quite at the top of my Rasumovsky list. The first movement of No 1 seems marginally lacking in energy when heard next to the Takács recording, which maintains a true allegro without compromising lyrical quality. Nor can the Tokyo players match the manic, grotesque verve of the Takács account of the following Scherzo. And the refined, poetic playing of No 2’s first Allegro misses something of its passionate intensity (realised so stunningly by the Busch Quartet).

Of recent recordings, I’d still recommend the Takács Quartet; but the Tokyo is well worth investigating, not least for the wonderful playing of No 3’s finale – swift and so well controlled.