Unusual indeed is the effect of Peter Lichtenthal’s 1802 transcription of 12 movements from Mozart’s Requiem. It will, perhaps, be compared to Haydn’s transcription for string quartet of his Seven Last Words. But the comparison is untenable because Haydn didn’t set to music a prescribed liturgy. Mozart did; and his setting was meant to deepen the meaning of the text. Remove the text with the full orchestration that enhances its significance, and the reduction becomes an abstraction, its meaning perceived according to individual preference.

Character has been changed, yet the change may not be of concern to many listeners. But others who have absorbed the Requiem as begun by Mozart, then completed in various ways by Eybler, Süssmayer, Beyer, Druce, Landon, Levin et al, may see Lichtenthal’s adaptation as no more than a collection of miniaturised soundbites that trivialise the original conception.

An unbridgeable void? Not entirely, not if it is possible mentally to set aside the connotations of sacred titles and consider, say, the contemplative Requiem aeternam, “Recordare”, “Lacrimosa”, “Hostias” and Agnus Dei as secular, though movingly beautiful, pieces idiomatically adapted for string quartet. Helpfully, Quatuor Debussy is at its sympathetic best here which makes it strange that they don’t bathe the Benedictus in a greater variety of tones; or maintain the thematic balance of Domine Jesu in perfect equilibrium. Forget “Dies irae” and “Rex tremendae”; they are feeble. Not all sections work. Disbelievers may, of course, consider this new arrival a total travesty that doesn’t work at all.