We do not hear enough Josef Suk. That thought strikes me whenever the rare opportunities arise to listen to the music of this Czech master as on this well-produced CPO set. The strongest works are undeniably on disc 1, where the two numbered quartets (1896, 1910 11) are separated by the 1915 revision of No 1’s Allegro giocoso finale. This proved, in a reversal of Beethoven’s experience with his Op 130, too remote in style and scale to make a satisfactory conclusion to this remarkably fresh, poised quartet. There is something of Mendelssohn’s spirit in its charm and youthful vigour which the Minguet Quartet catch very nicely in their lively performance. Whatever dissatisfied Suk about the finale does not seem obvious in this rendition, in which it seems of a piece with the other three spans.

The mature creator can be heard in every bar of the revised finale, which stands on its own as a fine and complex example of a dance fantasy. The Second Quartet, with its more ambiguous harmonic palette and darker tonal colouring, is an altogether deeper composition and one of Suk’s finest utterances in any medium. Its first three movements are slow-paced – all Adagio – with only the finale rising to a mild Allegretto; not until Shostakovich would another composer achieve a quartet as fine as this with a similar format.

Disc 2 features slighter works. Suk was only 22 when he completed Quartet No 1, although it was not his first essay in the form. He withdrew the D minor Quartet (1888) except for the central Andante con moto, which he liked well enough to revise in 1923 as a brief, independent Barcarolle in B flat. Pretty if insubstantial, it shows Suk’s early gift for melodic string-writing. The Ballade in D minor (1890) is twice the size of the Barcarolle yet still fairly light in tone and no Chopinesque romantic essay. The largest work is the Piano Quintet in G minor (1892 93) – the same key as Shostakovich, but there the parallels end. Revised in 1915, it remains oddly juvenile in feel for all Matthias Kirschnereit’s advocacy. The set completes with a neatly turned account of Meditation on the St Wenceslas Chorale (1914). Lovely performances, super sound from CPO.