For all the boldness of both the dots and their execution, the Elias Quartet observe a certain Classical propriety which does not domesticate Beethoven’s more feral inspirations but places his innovation in its proper context. Done with light hands, the Trio of Op 18 No 4 has an easy-going charm that serves to accentuate the otherwise dominant key of fierce tension. Nowhere do the Elias push the tempo to unreasonable extremes; rather tone-colour is an important and individual means of expression, including pure tone and sul ponticello in the spectral Presto of Op 130 and a keening portamento that would not feel out of place in Bartók or Ligeti and yet here gropes for tonal certainty in the dark introduction to Op 74, before the sun comes out in the Allegro and its famous ‘harp’ countermelody, which has rarely deserved the nickname less: no pretty imitation here. Still the steep and rugged passage through the development doesn’t thicken the body of their sound, which remains as distinctively slim and lithe as it was on their superb debut CD of Mendelssohn (10/09).

Those recordings were led from the front with unstinting courage by Sara Bitlloch, and I hear that quality in the slow movements especially of Op 74 and Op 130: how unafraid she is of the melodic snowline, how securely her colleagues are roped behind her. And if the Grosse Fuge is patched from this single performance, it isn’t obvious: either way it’s an astonishing achievement, to make the piece feel for once like a plausible finale and not a monolith, by giving each gesture the rhetorical space of a Bruckner finale and not grinding every dissonance into your ear. Lengthy applause is retained and deserved.