Weinberg wrote 17 string quartets, and as general interest in his music gathers pace, so too do the number of ensembles giving this cycle serious attention. This is the second volume in the Arcadia Quartet’s tour of the Polish-Jewish composer’s quartets and matches the excellence of the first. As the Romanian group explains in the booklet notes, coming across Weinberg’s music felt like a true moment of artistic discovery for them. “His music is like a glow of light surrounded by the darkness of the unknown, and it quickly became a goal of ours to attempt to dilute these shadows,” they write.

 Recorded with exemplary warmth and clarity by Chandos Records, the program brings together three quartets from different points in the composer’s life. The earliest takes us back to the start: String Quartet No 1 dates from 1937, when Weinberg was still in Poland, not long before he was forced to flee the Nazis. He was only a teenager at that point and a self-taught composer; yet there was clearly enough of substance that he returned to the piece five decades later to create the version...