'String quartets accompanied Bartók's creative career from the First, composed in 1908, to the Sixth, completed in 1939 while still in Europe. The First String Quartet was the most significant creation of the newly fledged composer. It is unsurprising then that when composing a work of such scale as the First String Quartet in 1908, Bartók should attenuate the German spirit with French colours.

The co-habitation of the two is a characteristically Jugendstil phenomenon, perfectly in keeping w...