It wasn’t all wit and sparkle. Sure, Haydn had a huge capacity for humour but some of his letters to Marianne von Genzinger show another facet of his character, a capacity for depression too – even at 37 when he wrote Op 9 No 4. And the Doric Quartet immediately hones in on its anxious ambience. They convey the resigned melancholy of the opening Moderato through subdued attack and tone that remains sombre even when the music moves out of its minor home key into, say, the F major second theme. In fact the Doric’s interpretation of the work, including the Adagio cantabile in usually bright B flat, has a slightly sunless cast that also permeates the tense drive of the Presto finale.

These musicians are different. Not radically different but enough to notice that their style of playing, though highly disciplined, isn’t cuttingly concentrated. It’s a key to their approach. The Vivace first movement of Op 50 No 2 has a relaxed swing that finds time to inflect notes and define modulations. Speed wasn’t necessary to express vivacity. Then there is Haydn the musical orator, found in the finale of Op 76 No 1. Listen to how the quartet unfolds its rhetoric, from turbulent G minor to the light-hearted, even flippant G major ending – of wit and sparkle. Want more? Try the encore, the finale from Op 50 No 1, and note how playfully the Doric sign off in this, their very auspicious recording debut.