‘He always enjoyed a tavern sextet’, recalled Dvořák’s friend Josef Zubatý, and the fledgling composer played more than his share of dance music. So it doesn’t feel entirely perverse to begin with the two waltzes which compromise a delightful encore to this fifth (and presumably final) release in the Vogler Quartet’s Dvořák cycle on CPO. They’re joined for this sweetest of victory laps by the bass player Frithjof-Martin Grabner; and just listen to the easy lilt, and the hefty, hobnailed crunch of their forte attack.

There’s a natural understanding of Dvořák’s style, as you’d expect at the end of such a journey. But there’s earth in it, too; and no question of handling the music with kid gloves. Reviews of earlier releases in this cycle have used terms such as ‘Beethovenian’, and that’s certainly the case here: a forthright, muscular way with a sonata argument that emphasises Dvořák’s place in the Austro-German tradition, and gives an open-air vigour and conviction to the weakest piece here, the A major Quartet, which is Dvorak’s earliest surviving exercise in the genre.

The booklet notes suggest that it was inspired by Beethoven’s Op 18 No 1. Personally I hear more of Mendelsssohn’s Op 13: either way, the Voglers develop a formidable head of steam in the slow movement. Coming straight afterwards, the formal subtlety and emotional scope of the C major Quartet, Op 61 (an undisputed masterpiece) makes for a striking contrast, and here you might find yourself longing for slightly more dynamic range in CPO’s rather boxy recorded sound, and perhaps a little more intimacy (I hesitate to use the word charm) in these readings.

Which is not to say that there isn’t ebb and flow in the playing, as well as colour and an often peppery rhythmic kick (particularly bracing in the zingy third movement of the A minor Quartet, Op 16 – one of the many underrated works of Dvořák’s early maturity). If you’ve followed the Vogler Quartet this far (and complete Dvořák cycles, inexplicably, are still relatively rare), you’ll know what to expect and needn’t hold back, though newcomers to this glorious repertoire will also find it a more-than-serviceable entry point.