It takes real thought to come up with something genuinely unusual in Beethoven year, so full marks to Mari Kodama for this recital of transcriptions of string quartet movements, most of which are appearing on disc for the first time.

Kodama writes of how she sees these as ‘poetic adaptations’ that allow her to get closer to the essence of Beethoven’s string music. The art of a fine transcription is to make it sound as comfortable in its new guise as in the original. The composers here do that with a variety of techniques, Balakirev making the most obviously pianistic additions of rolled chords and bass doublings, though they never sound overblown.

Kodama starts with Saint-Saëns’s arrangement of the Allegretto vivace from the First ‘Razumovsky’, bringing to life its playfulness, from the delicately tapping first motif, through a gradual build-up to its final release, which is delightfully dispatched. In the slow movement of the last of the Op 18 Quartets, you inevitably lose some of the textural subtleties, such as the exchange between viola and first violin at 3'12" or the staccato at 4'25", but Kodama is alive to its limpid allure and paces it very naturally.

From Balakirev we get the rumbustious Allegretto from the Second ‘Razumovsky’ and here I was less convinced – it sounds somewhat polite in Kodama’s hands, a sensation that continued into the maggiore middle section, which is a touch too timid-sounding. The Cavatina from Op 130 was always going to be a big challenge for an instrument that can’t naturally sustain. While Kodama is careful to pick a tempo that doesn’t drag, you can’t but miss the sheer intensity of four string players giving it their all in the original.

We’re on surer ground in the Vivace from Op 135, as reimagined by Mussorgsky, and I like the way Kodama gives it the requisite muscularity and plenty of dynamic contrast. The repetitive bass motif from 1'54" is nicely obsessive without getting aggressive. This is followed by the Lento assai, which Kodama takes at a prayerful pace, as befits its mood. But as she reaches the Più lento her tempo is such that momentum is almost stilled and it’s a relief to return to Tempo I. She’s almost as spacious as the Busch Quartet; but whereas they sound beatific, the result here is more dithery.

Finally we come to Beethoven himself as transcriber, with the theme-and-variation finale from Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. This ends the disc in a mood of splendid high jinks, particularly the fourth variation, which is infectiously gleeful. And such is the genius of his ear that you don’t miss Mozart’s distinctive original timbres. So an intriguing disc, very nicely recorded, with some real discoveries along the way.