In terms of the depth of personal expression, Leoš Janáček’s Second String Quartet is truly hard to surpass. Just a few years earlier, he had written his First String Quartet and given it the subtitle ‘Kreutzer Sonata’, after Tolstoy’s short story of the same name. An emotional crescendo is consistently built up across the quartet’s four movements, mirroring the tragic plot of the original story. Critics also spoke of the “burning embers of human emotion” in Béla Bartók’s Fifth String Quartet. With these three works, the Bennewitz Quartet offers a good hour of the most intense musical experience.