Overshadowed by his symphonies, Panufnik’s string quartets have begun to find favour – this disc by the Apollon Musagète Quartet being the fourth to present them as an integral though contrasted sequence. Composed after Sinfonia di sfere (his fifth and greatest symphony), the First Quartet (1976) pursues its innate abstraction to an even more graphic yet never cerebral degree. Thus ‘Prelude’ forcefully presents each of the four instruments in descending order, then ‘Transformations’ unfolds a dialogue of searching expressiveness that evolves with mounting intensity towards the climactic unison chord, after which ‘Postlude’ revisits the opening in vigorous though equable terms – suggestive of a resolution having been reached.

Even finer is the Second Quartet (1980) – its Messages inspired by childhood memories of hearing telegraph wires resonate in the wind, resulting in a single movement whose seamless interplay of stasis and dynamism makes for Panufnik’s most perfectly realised instrumental work. It is in conveying this unity-within-diversity that the present ensemble is impressive, the music emerging inevitably from fugitive beginnings to an even more rapt conclusion. If the Third Quartet (1990) is less ambitious in scope, its five succinct Wycinanki (‘Papercuts’) are a distillation of the composer’s cultural heritage and love of (symmetrical) abstraction in music whose formal concreteness and expressive fervour are as one; not least its harnessing of diverse techniques (explained by its origin as a test piece) towards a transfigured ending.

These works are preceded by Hommage à Chopin (1949) for flute with accompaniment from quartet and double bass. Dóra Ombódi acquits herself sensitively, even if this elegant music does feel out of context. Interpretatively, the AMQ come between the warmer manner of the Brodsky and incisive attack of the Tippett, whose fearlessness has the edge overall. Vividly recorded and well annotated, this release still presents the quartets with manifest conviction.