Founded in Berlin in 2019, the Leonkoro Quartet is no stranger to the UK having won first prize and nine special awards at the 2022 Wigmore Hall international string quartet competition. In their new disc they explore three composers who embody the musical cutting-edge that might have been encountered in the Austrian capital either side of the Great War.

Alban Berg and Anton Webern took Schoenberg’s theories of free atonality and the 12-tone system in rather different directions. Berg’s Lyric Suite was a fervent outpouring to his mistress, and the quartet aptly captures the moody sensuality of this intense, intricate music. The Andante Amoroso swoons; the Allegro Misterioso tiptoes on muted strings; the Presto Delirando is positively coital. The playing is unflinching and seethes with imaginative detail.

A memorial to his mother, Webern’s Five Pieces from 1909 were effectively the first atonal string quartet. The composer’s dynamic variety and breadth of imagination are astonishing, as is the maturity and expressivity of the interpretation here. From just four years earlier, the Langsamer Satz is the most overtly romantic thing Webern ever wrote: a musical case of the road not taken.

Spliced between them as a palate cleanser is Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces, a quirky suite that runs the gamut, from a slyly sent up Viennese waltz to a louche Argentine tango. The Czech-born composer embraced many musical styles throughout his career, but here seems to be thoroughly enjoying his absurdist phase. Again, the playing and recorded sound are top-tier.