‘He imitates me too much’ was Beethoven’s reported verdict on his pupil and amanuensis Ferdinand Ries. He had a point. The opening of the E flat Quartet, WoO10, composed in 1805 while Ries was still taking lessons with Beethoven, begins with a paraphrase of the opening of Op 18 No 2 and continues with a ‘second subject’ strongly reminiscent of Op 18 No 4. The C major Quartet, WoO37, composed shortly after Beethoven’s death, is even more indebted to the master. Indeed, the first three movements are an overt homage to Beethoven’s third Razumovsky Quartet.

Ries, though, was temperamentally far more easy-going than his teacher; and these quartets have little of Beethoven’s strangeness and brusqueness, or his strenuous motivic development. But Ries proves an expert craftsman, with an appealing vein of cantabile melody and a feeling for well placed harmonic surprise. Highlights include the vivid minuet of the E flat, full of nagging cross-rhythms à la Haydn and Beethoven, and the fiery polonaise trio that disrupts the courtly suavity of the C minor’s minuet.

Playing on period instruments with an agreeable touch of astringency, the Schuppanzigh are lively and skilful advocates of these likeable quartets. They bring plenty of colour and rhythmic energy to the fast movements (with some deft virtuosity from the leader in the two finales) and shape the lyrical melodies eloquently. Anyone investigating the disc, though, should beware of another of CPO’s moronically translated notes.