The Dudok offer a driving account of the first movement of Mendelssohn’s last quartet, conveying vividly its rhetoric and sense of desperation, and their immaculate ensemble is very impressive…From her we dive back in time to Josquin’s Mille regretz. How beautifully and directly this speaks to us from across the centuries in this sensitive arrangement by the Dudok’s cellist David Faber.

This powerfully expressive young group begin their exploration of loneliness with the searing heartbreak of Mendelssohn’s F minor quartet, Op 80...Two small Renaissance transcriptions — Josquin’s Mille regretz, Gesualdo’s Moro lasso — make touching transitions, the latter, with its harmonic bleakness, sitting oddly well after Shostakovich’s affecting five-minute Elegy.

The playing from these fine Amsterdam instrumentalists had me gripped right from the start of Mendelssohn’s febrile Quartet in F minor...The Dudok Quartet get right to the heart of this piece, unsparing in the frantic opening allegro and sweetly tender in the adagio, before plunging into the abyss of the finale. It’s a very fine performance.

These recordings are a combination of gripping performances and programming flair and demonstrate why this young ensemble has been attracting so much attention. Put this on so that you’ll find yourself within the prickling skins of these works – and on the edge of your seat.