Recordings of Verklärte Nacht in Schoenberg’s arrangement for string orchestra have always tended to outnumber those of the original version. But, as this new issue confirms with admirable directness, it’s much easier for six solo players to generate the necessary dramatic immediacy and rhythmic spontaneity than for a conducted ensemble.

The Artemis Quartet are joined by two members of the Alban Berg Quartet: the viola player Thomas Kakuska has since died, and the disc is dedicated to him. It’s a memorable performance, beginning icily but generating a fiery intensity as the work’s successive episodes unfold. Even if you’re a devotee of the historic version based around the Hollywood Quartet, or of more recent accounts like those involving the LaSalle or Juilliard quartets, this new one deserves consideration, not least for the outstanding clarity and naturalness of its sound.

A similar urgency and eloquence are found in the sextet which Strauss wrote as the Prelude to his last opera, Capriccio. The playing here might be a touch too brisk and brusque to work well in the theatre but it makes for a strong concert item, with sentimentality refreshingly kept at bay. Heime Müller’s sextet arrangement of Berg’s Piano Sonata is also refreshing in its resourceful transformation of this hyper-romantic music from one homogeneous medium to another. Of course the types of homogeneity are totally different, and I’m not really persuaded that the music speaks as strongly here as it does through the particular qualities of attack and resonance special to the piano. I’m still glad of the chance to hear it in this form.