The Borodins’ Beethoven series has, with this fourth volume, reached the halfway mark – time for assessment, perhaps. The impact of the playing is very positive: clear, expressive, unforced tone combined with spontaneity and lack of mannerism. The unrivalled experience of this group – Valentin Berlinsky has been playing with the quartet since its inception in 1945 – doesn’t translate into a one-sided, set view of Beethoven’s compositions. Instead, we are given the feeling of a voyage of discovery, and of the players’ own enjoyment of the music.

The limitations of the Borodin approach are, firstly, a certain ironing-out of the dynamics; there’s a reluctance to play really quietly, so the mysterious, solemn, pianissimo passages in Quartet No 12’s slow movement and in No 13’s Cavatina don’t make their full, searching effect. Secondly, some tempi are on the slow side: the finale of No 12 is slightly heavy, and though the preceding Scherzando sounds well, there’s a rather careful feel, which recurs in the Alla danza tedesca in No 13. Turn to the brightness and verve of the Vermeer Quartet in No 12 (now in a nine-disc bargain box-set), or the magical Viennese grace of the ABQ in the No 13 movement and it’s clear what the Borodin are missing.

These movements are the exceptions, however; more often I’m happy to accept without reserve the Borodin version. The opening movement of No 12 has all the majesty, tenderness, vigour and eccentricity the different episodes demand. No 13’s Andante combines beautifully expressive phrases with a deliciously light, playful mood. And in the finale, the tempo is perfect; it’s a movement that can sometimes sound awkward and ungrateful to play, but not here. In this performance we feel that Beethoven, in his last completed piece, was determined to leave all his cares behind him.