Viola to the fore in the third movement, Agitato, of Op 67; and Geraldine Walther, firm-toned and assertive, rises to the occasion as the only un-muted instrumentalist here. Agitation isn’t consistently maintained though because the Takács Quartet tend to ease the tension in places. Yet there is no slack in the other movements. This close-knit group unanimously stretch or tighten the rhythm, achieving evenly matched dynamics such as the sotto voce sequences in the opening Vivace, the hushed dolce e grazioso in the recapitulation of the Andante and the stilled peace of the G flat sixth variation in the finale. Walther is well in the picture in this movement too whereas elsewhere she appears occasionally to lose focus.

Not so in Op 51 No 1. Her place on the right of the ensemble is firmly assured here. The work is “commonly held to be representative of Brahms’s austerity and asceticism” (Edwin Evans), and these epithets are apposite for the Takács, spare of style and tone. The players’ control over the first movement doesn’t preclude a range of rubato – for example the third theme and the succeeding quaver passage for the first violin (1'52" to 2'22") – that serves to sharpen the musical argument. Nor does it preclude a linear drive that knits the six themes of the last movement into a coherent whole, while they do not let up on the melancholy of the middle movements, the third particularly dark. The recording is tonally credible but is widely separated.