Though it garnered enthusiastic reviews elsewhere, the Dudok’s first volume of Haydn’s epoch-making Op 20 quartets slipped through the Gramophone net. This follow-up confirms the young Dutch ensemble’s Haydn credentials in performances that combine technical polish (immaculate tuning, balance and ensemble), boundless vitality and a lively response to the specific character of each movement.

Fast movements, invariably taken briskly, unfold with a powerful sense of logical growth (not for nothing does the quartet take its name from the Dutch architect Willem Dudok). Other quartets, including the Doric and, using gut strings, the Chiaroscuro, treat the opening movements more flexibly, more quizzically. At times, especially in the eyes-down, straight-ahead Allegro moderato of No 1, the Dudok might seem a shade hard-driven. But while I don’t catch much of Haydn’s prescribed scherzando playfulness in the bounding first movement of No 6 (the Doric are spot-on here), the Dudok bring an exhilarating sweep to the rapid modulations of the central development. You’d go far to hear a fierier performance of No 4’s opening Allegro, here di molto indeed, with the players vaulting over the bar line, always thinking in long spans; and the Dudok predictably relish the explosive outbursts and coruscating contrapuntal interplay of the gypsy-flavoured finale.

Predictably, too, the Dudok favour pacy minuets. This must be the fastest, fiercest performance on disc of the crazy zingarese minuet-gavotte of No 4 but the players bring it off brilliantly. Elsewhere they make a vivid contrast between No 1’s springy Minuet and musing Trio, and treat the Minuet of No 6, delightfully, as a light-footed waltz.

The Dudok’s clear-eyed directness does not seem quite enough in the Adagio of No 6, a rapt violin solo with subtle touches of viola colouring. Both the Doric and the delicate, improvisatory Chiaroscuro touched me more deeply here. But the Dudok give a fine-drawn performance of No 4’s poignant Poco adagio variations, from their sensitive voicing of the theme to the mounting tension of the sequences in the coda. Other groups, not least the Doric, have brought more hushed inwardness to No 1’s glorious Affetuoso e sostenuto. Yet the Dutch group vindicate their flowing tempo, phrasing in long, seamless lines, colouring subtly and gently pointing Haydn’s strange harmonic progressions. It’s hard, of course, for any quartet to satisfy completely in such rich and demanding music. The Dudok sometimes left me a touch breathless. Far more often, though, I was exhilarated by the mingled virtuosity, finesse and coursing energy of these performances.