This month, Hyperion Records releases Child’s Play, a double album devoted to chamber music by Australian composer Carl Vine. Recorded by the Goldner String Quartet with pianist Piers Lane and cellist Umberto Clerici, it celebrates the composer’s long association with the members of the quartet – violinists Dene Olding and Dimity Hall, violist Irina Morozova and cellist Julian Smiles.

For Olding, the recording represents more than another addition to the Goldners’ extensive discography. It is also the quartet’s final album, arriving in the wake of their decision to disband after three decades together.

The Goldner String Quartet with composer Carl Vine and pianist Piers Lane at Sydney’s Verbrugghen Hall. Photo © Alex Smiles

“I’m very gratified that they agreed to a recording by an Australian composer,” Olding says of Hyperion’s decision to devote the album entirely to Vine’s music. “They do a lot of the standard repertoire, so this was a departure for them. I hope it bears fruit for their sake, as well as ours.”

That sense of occasion made the project particularly meaningful for a quartet that has long championed...