Anyone still thinking of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern as soulless serialists will be surprised by the feverish romanticism that burns so fiercely in all three of these works for string quartet. Schoenberg’s Op 10 (1907 08) and Berg’s Op 3 (1910) both bear the dedication ‘to my wife’, while Webern’s Langsamer Satz (1905) reflects his devotion to his cousin, Wilhelmine, whom he would eventually marry in 1911. It’s worth recalling that Schoenberg was in his thirties at this time, his pupils in their twenties, and radical initiatives in Viennese culture were often reflected in turbulent private lives – for example, as Webern helped to broker an uneasy reconciliation between Schoenberg and his wife Mathilde after her traumatic affair with the painter Richard Gerstl in 1908.

The Heath Quartet certainly can’t be accused of trying to downplay the autobiographical hinterland of Schoenberg’s Second Quartet, and the admirably lucid recording conveys a wealth of striking details without losing the necessary equilibrium within the ensemble as a whole. Such a characterful blend of textural clarity and expressive spontaneity places this release among the best Op 10s on disc. Even the third movement, where in some performances Schoenberg seems to come closest to self-pitying ponderousness, has an authentic sense of desperation, so that the composer’s use of a solo soprano to spell out states of mind (which in most string quartets are conveyed without words) works extremely well. Here, and again in the finale, Carolyn Sampson stays just the right side of a no-holds-barred operatic style, and Schoenberg’s ultimate reassertion of the quartet’s status as chamber music is powerfully reinforced.

By 1909 Webern was writing string music that outdid both Berg and Schoenberg in radical intensity. The Heath Quartet can do little to make his earlier, sub-Straussian Slow Movement more than an awkward apprentice effort but they respond impressively to the many challenges thrown down by Berg’s Op 3, a work remarkable for its utter lack of timidity despite Berg’s continued deference to his demanding teacher. If a poetic programme for this piece were to turn up, it would surely resemble Schoenberg’s nightmarish Erwartung, the short monodrama he wrote soon after the Second Quartet. The Heath play Berg’s kaleidoscopic pair of movements with a rhythmic incisiveness and sure sense of how best to respond to the score’s constantly shifting instructions, maintaining an essential continuity even when Berg himself seems about to reject it. This outstanding performance strengthens admiration for the young composer’s determination to plot his own distinctive path through the emotional jungle of early 20th-century expressionism, and the recording team have taken great care to solve the many balance problems posed by such febrile textures.