The playing is strongly Romantic in character, emphasizing the violent contrasts and almost painful expressivity of the score; the ensemble can deliver feathery, near-inaudible pianissimos and powerful fortissimos with equal presence. Intonation is more or less flawless, and ensemble work is superb with all five parts often being equally audible with no loss of coordination. On each repeated listen I find new details springing out of the texture. There are occasional miscalculations—the cello pizzicati at the start of the adagio are a bit too prominent, though the reverberant acoustic (recorded in a church) could also be partly to blame—but for the most part everything is well judged.

Written between December 1782 and January 1785 the set of six string quartets which Mozart dedicated to Haydn are striking masterpieces, and that he meant them to be so is clear from the printed dedication to his older colleague. ''Dearest friend and famous man,'' he wrote, ''here are… these six sons of mine. They are the fruit of long and laborious effort. One thing has a little encouraged and comforted me: the hope, flatteringly whispered to me, that these musical works might one day be a joy to me… I therefore commend my children to you, hoping that they will not seem totally unworthy of your love.'' Furthermore, Mozart's choice of the medium seems appropriate since he and Haydn had on occasion played together as members of a string quartet, and both surely thought of it as a more refined vehicle for musical thought than the symphony orchestra.