There seems little to link Schubert’s quartet with Janáček’s except responses to death. In the Schubert, the players shadow the music with anxiety, driving hard at the insistent rhythms. They hold back effectively, with grey tone and absence of expressive phrasing, as towards the end of the first movement Schubert breaks in with one of the morbid interruptions that mark his late music; and when this is thrust aside, they end on a note of wistfulness and gentleness. In the Scherzo they reserve their most expressive playing for the Trio, elegiac in tone by contrast with the the merciless rhythms of the rest. They resist the suggestion of some commentators that the finale is Schubert’s dance of death; the pace is lively, the mood almost one of acceptance.

Janáček’s quartet, taking as its subject Tolstoy’s unpleasant story of a brutal and jealous husband murdering his unfaithful wife, is treated quite severely, the elegant seducer portrayed with menacing charm, the wife panicky yet touching, as the idea – in atmosphere rather than in narrative detail – unfolds across the length of the work. Janáček makes intricate demands of his players with constant cross-rhythms and complex dynamic markings, but they are important to the whole nature of the music and are followed here faithfully. Though the recording is on the resonant side, the detail is clear and effective. If you happen to want these two works on a single disc, here are two good performances. There are brief, inadequate booklet-notes and, for some reason, the back cover illustration has the players losing it completely and dancing about throwing music stands and scores in the air.