A fascinating CD coupling inspired arrangements by Mozart of fugues by J. S. Bach with Haydn quartets that feature a fugal movement and music by their contemporaries Werner and Albrechtsberger, highly esteemed by Emperor Joseph II, who even opened a special department for fugal forms in the imperial library in Vienna.

‘ . . . it is well known that changes in taste have very little influence on the fugue. For this reason, lovers of music for quartet need not be afraid. . . to find in these works of art anything that might be offensive to the tastes of our own time . . . precisely because they are written in a spirit that never goes out of fashion . . .’ Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1808