Full-blooded quartet playing in the grand, classic manner: extrovert and eloquent` is how the performances of the Escher String Quartet were described in a review of their recording of Mendelssohn`s first and fourth quartets in BBC Music Magazine. After completing the three-disc cycle of Mendelssohn quartets – and earning further accolades, including a nomination to the 2017 BBC Music Magazine Awards – the quartet now returns with a programme which leaves plenty of opportunity for their special brand of playing.

Composed between 1873 (Tchaikovsky) and 1893 (Dvořák), the three quartets gathered on this disc form a catalogue of unforgettable tunes and of emotions ranging from nostalgia to the most infectious joy. Each of the three composers wrote more than one quartet – Dvořák`s list of works includes as many 14! – but the ones recorded here are by far their best-loved. A contributing fact is surely that they all three include slow movements that tug at every listener`s heartstrings. Especially Tchaikovsky`s Andante cantabile and Borodin`s Notturno have become favourites in their own right, and exist in arrangements for every possible combination of instruments. But there is more to these works than the slow movements: throughout each quartet there is a wealth of melodic invention, rhythmic vitality and lyric fleetness which the Escher`s know how to exploit to the full.