“This is an excellent set of the Bartók String Quartets …”  ****

“…This is wonderfully imaginative playing – a more relaxed approach than the high-tension of some recent rivals. The expansive tempi allow room for savouring some extraordinary textures and sonorities, letting sounds resonate and hang in the air. Their lovely tonal blend, captured in a typical Chandos warm acoustic, is in the classic East-European soft-grained tradition but doesn’t sugarcoat these modernist icons. The primal savagery is conveyed with foot-stamping energy and earthy colours, while melancholia and wistful longing pervade the atmospheric slow movements…” ****

“…a compelling and very beautiful cycle that elbows its way to a place at the crowded top table.”

Recording of the Month

“…This is an excellent recording, one which I will be revisiting regularly, and one which is quickly becoming my go-to recording of the works.”

Performance ****      Recording ****

“…a beautifully balanced performance.”

“… if I was asked to recommend a Bartók cycle to a first-time listener intimidated by his spiky  reputation, I’d send them straight to the Arcadia Quartet. Even for the aficionado, this spacious, big-hearted vision of Bartók as poet, dreamer and humourist has something distinctive to say.”