This is certainly more than just another version of Death and the Maiden. The Yggdrasil have clearly considered their interpretation very carefully, from the stark, severe opening gesture, played with minimal vibrato, to the fast yet closely controlled finale (I’ve never heard the grace notes in the main theme done with such clarity and precision). All the loud, dramatic music has tremendous vigour – accents tend to be quite aggressive – and for the eerie, quiet music that’s such a feature of this quartet, the Yggdrasil find a marvellously ghostly, insubstantial tone.

What we don’t get is any kind of expressive warmth or effusion. In the Andante’s second variation the cello melody is beautifully calm and broad, and the penultimate major-key variation appears like a vision of remote, unattainable happiness. In the first movement, however, the second theme’s yearning character seems to demand a more overt expression of feeling, something that comes naturally to the Alban Berg Quartet. Their energy and drive also provides a model for the Scherzo, where the Yggdrasil sound rather heavy and over-careful. But overall the latter’s is a fine performance, one that sheds new light on a familiar masterpiece.

D87 has plenty of vivacity and charm, with a lightness of rhythm that admirably catches the mood of this early quartet. In the Adagio and in the finale’s coda, however, I again longed for a little bit more expressive weight. The recorded sound has an immediacy that emphasises the group’s finesse and perfect ensemble, and is very well balanced.