Haydn swiftly spotted the newly created string quartet medium’s potential as a vehicle for expressive exploration and the development of bold musical ideas.

The Badke Quartet, winner of the 2007 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, opens the programme with the exuberant hunting calls of the composer’s Op. 1 No. 1 before joining forces with Spanish virtuoso Maximiliano Martin in Brahms’s divine Clarinet Quintet.