Musicians and music lovers agree that the string quartet is the most perfect combination of instruments in chamber music. And should anyone be looking for evidence in support of this view, just listening to the Beethoven’s and Schubert’s last quartets would be answer enough to end all arguments. When they wrote them, both composers were more or less aware of their impending end and, as they always did, they channelled into these quartets too their profound metaphysical thoughts, transforming them into music that to this day shines as an unsurpassed achievement of the human spirit.