Listening to the Affinity and Oriole string quartets at Quartetthaus is one of the most intense musical experiences one could enjoy – and I really did.  What a triumph for the Australian National Academy of Music Quartetthaus – reportedly the smallest concert hall in the world, at 11 metres by 11 metres, with room for a circular audience of 52 – has been home to a chamber music festival since May 3.

It has hosted up to six recitals a day by three Australian and three English quartets playing mostly Australian and English music.

ANAM Quartetthaus. Photo supplied

The chamber itself, perhaps double the size of a non-luxury living room, is designed to replicate the inside of a violin. I’ve no idea what that is like, but I do know that listening in that space is wonderfully intimate, visceral even, with perfect clarity from all four instruments. You can see every gesture of the performers, when they glance at each other (for example, when they are coordinating entries), and their physical effort is obvious. Every attack on the strings by the bow is writ large.

The tiny circular stage, on which the...