Formed before the original members were even teenagers, the Brodsky Quartet remains an amazing inspiration for young classical music geeks and for those of us who once fitted that description.

Fuelled by a youthful enthusiasm that led its members to huddle around a radio attempting to transcribe the latest Shostakovich quartet, the Brodsky has not only gone on to champion the works of that famous Russian but to give us an enormous number of fine recordings covering every corner of the quartet literature and beyond.

Collaborations with popular artists, including Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Björk and Australia’s own Katie Noonan witness not only to the group’s versatility, but also to the vibrant, enquiring mindset that characterises all of the Brodsky’s music making. Australian audiences are doubtless eagerly anticipating the quartet’s return to our shores this year, after celebrating its fiftieth anniversary last year.

Following the group’s tradition of releasing a compilation album at each 10-year anniversary comes Golden Oldies. The title is something of a misnomer: the music and the performers may be golden, but most of the music (with...