Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2019, it is perhaps remarkable that the Fitzwilliam String Quartet has not already recorded this towering pinnacle of Western music repertoire but this performance proves it was well worth the wait! The work’s idiomatic grandeur and overall complexity coupled with its everchanging tonalities and otherworldly atmosphere call for the sort of stamina that is the privilege of a limited few. The Fitzwilliams rise admirably to the challenge, demonstrating the characteristic expertise which has defined their recordings over many decades.

Inexplicably left unfinished, the C minor ‘Quartettsatz’ rounds off the programme. This chiseled, and yet formally unorthodox, single movement is presented here with its Andante second movement completed by leading Schubert scholar Brian Newbould.