As with most good music‚ the simplest of Leonard Salzedo’s ideas leave the most powerful impression. I’m thinking in particular of the Seventh Quartet‚ a long­delayed memorial to the composer’s father which had to wait a further 25 years for its 1994 première. The middle movements are a brief‚ restless waltz and an old Sephardic Jewish melody declaimed on the cello as an exaggerated molto espressivo‚ much as Salzedo senior might have played it himself. But what makes this soulful lento so magical is the sul ponticello community that frames the soloist‚ like gossiping ghosts in close attendance. The fast finale gains gradually in intensity: it represents‚ in the words of the composer‚ ‘the unresolved inner conflict which is the central theme of the piece’. That conflict mirrors‚ according to Salzedo‚ a painful tug­of­war between ethnic tradition and an intellectual rejection of religious ritual as ‘superstitious nonsense’. It’s a conflict that to this day many a child of orthodox religious parents – Jewish‚ Christian‚ Moslem or whatever – has to grapple with‚ and the message is poetically conveyed. But of course Salzedo’s music is more than autobiographical reflection. As a prize­winning student of the RCM and a long­term member of Beecham’s Royal Philharmonic‚ Leonard Salzedo (1921­2000) was well qualified for the task of musical creation. His sizeable output includes a number of quartets; indeed‚ he was so pleased with the Archaeus’s performance of this Seventh Quartet that he immediately set to work on an Eighth. I’d imagine that he would have been just as happy with their reading of the Second Quartet. In the theme­and­variations second movement‚ he toys provocatively with harmony‚ texture and rhythm while keeping the theme’s broader contours within earshot and the Archaeus’s playing is extremely perceptive. This is hyperactive writing‚ energetic‚ even obsessive at times‚ which occasionally makes for a tiring listen – especially in the imaginative but demanding Sonata for violin and viola‚ which was written for the soloists who perform it here. Salzedo was a dab hand at antiphonal dialoguing‚ inversion and other smart compositional devices; and yet he wasn’t merely ‘clever­clever’. He knew his instruments‚ liked to challenge them and wore his experience lightly. What more is there to say? The music is absorbing‚ the performances wholly in tune with its spirit and the sound ideal – meaty and close but not overbearing. It is yet another fine instalment in an extraordinarily valuable series.