Janacek’s quartets are now a regular pairing, with at least 10 performances currently available in various versions and varying degrees of excellence. The Skampas, for instance, make use of a revised edition by Milan Skampa, and there is even a version by members of the Kubin Quartet using the viola d’amore which was Janacek’s reluctantly – but wisely – discarded first thought (both Supraphon). The Brodskys use the standard scores of 1945 and 1949, and almost without exception keep precisely to the very intricate markings. They have also absorbed the detail of the scores with great understanding, so that the often abrupt time changes or sudden, even violent alternations of dynamics make complete expressive sense. Further, there is a perceptive response to the sense of dance rhythms that lies within much of the invention and from time to time rises to the surface – frantically in the Second Quartet’s Presto, with a charming if slightly wry lilt in its third movement before the passionate outbursts of the theme. These are fine, thoughtful performances, well able to bear comparison with the best of the others available, headed by the Panocha Quartet (Supraphon, 11/96) and the marvellous Talich Quartet (Calliope, 3/06).

This disc includes two members of the Brodsky Quartet in earlier Janacek pieces, the engaging Pohadka (Fairy Tale) of 1910 and the rather more conventional Violin Sonata of 1914 which Janacek revised in 1921. Both are attractively and sensitively played.