Florence Price’s Second Quartet (1935) may not, quite, reach the level of Dvořák’s celebrated American Quartet but it is a beautifully crafted piece showing the influence of the Czech master, and the Classical-Romantic tradition as a whole. The large opening movement, Moderato, dominates proceedings and, despite taking half the quartet’s duration, never outstays its welcome, due to its intermittently turbulent demeanour and mix of chromaticism and Spiritual-like lyricism.

The lyrical acuity common to many of Price’s scores is present in the wistful Andante cantabile (not quite as lovely as the Andante moderato of the unfinished G major), but of more immediate impact is the Juba, a slave dance that Price substituted (as she also did elsewhere) for the scherzo. The slightly Joplinesque rhythms are as distinctive as are a furiant’s to Dvořák. The Ragazze Quartet have the measure of this music, and their performance is as every bit as convincing as the Catalyst’s. (Naxos has also just released the Avalon Quartet’s account of the Second Quartet, coupled with her Five Folksongs in Counterpoint and Leo Sowerby’s unpublished Quartet.)

The Ragazze’s performance of the Dvořák makes for fascinating comparisons with the Pavel Haas Quartet’s Gramophone Award-winning account, not least for their darker tone (the Czech ensemble seem much brighter), more akin to the Escher, who provide formidable competition in a programme of Tchaikovsky and Borodin. I like all three accounts so couplings will likely determine choice. I would still give first recommendation to the Haas (coupled with the Thirteenth Quartet), but the Ragazze have a delightful novelty encore in Jacob Garchik’s arrangement of Grammy Award-winning Rhiannon Giddens’s slave-themed song At the Purchaser’s Option; a line from the second verse provides the album’s title. Terrific sound.