Another month, another Schubert C major Quintet. For any new version to make its mark it has to be pretty special. The recent Quatuor Diotima/Gastinel reading was full of character but was let down by a sluggish slow movement. The Kuss Quartet are joined by the distinguished Hungarian cellist Miklós Perényi and there’s very a much a sense of him being an integral part of the group, overcoming the hurdle that the Takács failed to surmount with Kirshbaum.

Pulse is all-important in all Schubert, nowhere more so than in the extended works of his final years. That’s something that the Pavel Haas/Ishizaka performance judges to a nicety, with each phrase clearly part of the bigger picture. In this new reading, the pulse feels less consistent because the phrasing tends to be more segmented. Some groups slow down (wrongly) for the second theme of the opening Allegro; the Kuss don’t but there is a suspicion that the tempo has already flagged somewhat because of that lack of a consistent pulse. Similarly, at the start of the slow movement (which is, happily, not too slow), the pizzicato second cello line is bent just enough towards the close of the phrases to make it sound as if the music is dragging its heels. By contrast, the Pavel Haas set the tone for this extraordinary movement purely through the phrasing of the first violin and the result is much more natural.

The Kuss are more compelling in the Scherzo, a heady combination of energy and earthiness, and their colours in the Trio form a fine contrast. There’s angst aplenty in their finale, the swinging gait gaining a slightly desperate edge in their hands. But, again, there’s a tendency to think in small phrases, notwithstanding some elegant contrasts in the Viennese-tinged second idea. It means that by the closing pages they haven’t managed to build up to a sense of being on the edge of the abyss to the same degree as the Haas reading, making for a less shatteringly intense musical experience.