The Atrium Quartet won first prize in the 2003 London International String Quartet Competition with a gripping account of Shostakovich’s Fifth Quartet – along with the Twelfth, the most wide ranging and powerfully wrought of the cycle, though among the least performed. On their disc, unfazed by its demands, the Atrium steer a propulsive course through the Allegro – easily the most persuasively argued of Shostakovich’s sonata-form movements – and effect a suspenseful transition into the Andante, whose otherworldliness is underlined by the sparing but varied use of vibrato. Nor does the finale disappoint – its initial animation and violent culmination leading to a coda whose bittersweet oblivion is unerringly captured.

This is undoubtedly the finest recording of the Fifth Quartet to have appeared during recent years and if that of Beethoven’s Harp Quartet is not of the same stature, then the smouldering pathos and visceral excitement that the Atrium draw from its slow movement and Scherzo respectively suggest that the Beethoven quartets are territory hardly less ripe for further exploration. The Atrium’s Shostakovich, however, is a performance to treasure. Decently recorded, too.