While Shostakovich’s symphonies and quartets stare Janus-like from his core output, the former encapsulating his public utterances, the latter his private musings, those of Mieczysaw Weinberg (1919-96) have no such expressive dichotomy. Yet the Polish-born composer was audibly influenced by his Russian mentor’s early and middle-period quartets. The influence was benign, however, releasing Weinberg’s expressive sensibilities but without the occasionally hysterical tone Shostakovich inherited from the Mahlerian side of his stylistic heritage. Weinberg’s own voice was too strong to be submerged, as is evident in the Seventh (1957), which marked a return to quartet-writing after a self-imposed hiatus in the wake of Zhdanov’s anti-formalism diktats in 1948. The opening Adagio moves away from initial serenity and never finds its way back; by the close of the long compound-form finale it is an older and wiser quartet that achieves a modicum of resolution.

The expressive profile of No 11 (1966) runs in the opposite direction. It is one of Weinberg’s more whimsical creations – well over half the quartet is played muted. The quirky opening Allegro assai steals along in uneasy fashion as if constantly looking over its shoulder. After a brief, volatile Scherzo, the fears openly emerge in the spare, brooding Adagio semplice before the final Allegro leggiero quietly reconciles the disparate musical elements. The single, highly integrated span (only slightly longer than No 7’s finale) of the Thirteenth (1977) is a unique, finely realised structure. As in Vol 1, the Danel Quartet play these works splendidly, really at home with the idiom and captured in splendid sound by Arnd Coppers. An excellent disc.