Rosamunde Quartett, Hilliard Ensemble ECM New Series 476 4426*****

The 42-year-old Israeli composer Boris Yoffe (a Karlsruhe resident born in St Petersburg) has been writing string quartets, diary-like, a page at a time, since 1995. He originally thought of a series of 20, then 365, but he passed that marker without noticing, and even when he did, he continued with his well-established practice. The pages now number in the thousands. The chromaticism of the style harks back to the early 20th century, and not only are interpretative markings absent, but present performers The Rosamunde Quartett, have been encouraged to make and shape their own selections, here with phrases from the Song of Songssung by The Hilliard Ensemble. The shuffling of miniatures has a significant compositional precedent in Schumann. But Yoffe's seemingly accidental and strangely affecting project, full of burdened contemplation, is truly sui generis. See url.ie/ 7ebo