Complete Beethoven Cycle: Programme 3

Beethoven’s lyrical Third String Quartet straddles the old and the new – which Beethoven himself would usher in. While showing considerable respect for an heritage epitomised by Mozart and Haydn, it also tests the boundaries between past and present with delightful poise and precision.

By the time of the Ninth Quartet, musical muscles are being flexed with greater confidence and pointing more determinedly towards astonishing new directions. Its powerful opening and forceful finale (boasting a complicated but dazzlingly executed fugue) underline its Heroic nickname.

Originally composed for two harpsichords, viola da gamba and percussion, Kevin Volans’ First String Quaret, White Man Sleeps (1986), makes liberal use of African folk music to colour and shape a traditional Western form and imbue it with a uniquely contemporary personality.