‘It would be hard to find a more vivid demonstration of the variety of French music-making in the last quarter of the 19th century than the two quartets on this disc.’ Thus Roger Nichols in his exemplary booklet for this release (exemplary, that is, as long as you are up to speed with the Phrygian mode). As he observes so elegantly, neither of them ‘conforms wholly to the casual cliché of French music as being light, graceful, charming and anti anything that might be classed as intellectual’.

So a satisfying and rewarding pairing in superb sound (Potton Hall with Jeremy Hayes and Jonathan Cooper). The performances of both are, as you would expect from an ensemble that has had these works in its repertoire for many years, as fine in their attention to detail as is their structural grasp and stylistic assurance. If it is this pairing that attracts you, then there is no competition. If, however, your main interest is Saint-Saëns, then I would go for the Nash Ensemble’s survey of his major chamber works (Hyperion, 7/05) featuring the incomparable piano of Ian Brown. He brings an altogether lighter touch to the texture, which I prefer to the newcomer, especially in the second movement (here the Schubert Ensemble’s William Howard is almost Brahmsian) and which comes into its own in the fleet-fingered, Mendelssohnian third-movement scherzo.

The Chausson Quartet, written some 22 years later in 1897, really deserves to be better known. Again, if Chausson is your chief concern, then I should opt for the comprehensive Decca collection of Chausson’s music (including his more celebrated Concert for violin, piano and string quartet) with Pascal Rogé and the Ysaÿe Quartet; if you want just these two Chausson works – Concert and Quartet – then Hyperion is your destination again with Pascal Devoyon and the Chilingirian Quartet (2/98). Paradoxically, though, it is Howard’s playing on the Chandos release that best realises ‘the searching, yearning quality of the writing’ (Nichols again) in glorious music that reflects the influences of César Franck and Richard Wagner.