Within a month of starting piano lessons, Dmitry Shostakovich was playing easy pieces by Mozart and Haydn. The Russian composer’s Ninth String Quartet also looks back to music of the past, alluding to the famous fanfare theme from Rossini’s ‘William Tell’ Overture.

The dynamic Danish String Quartet, First Prize-winner of the 2009 London International String Quartet Competition, pairs Shostakovich’s often experimental work with the bold rhetoric and virtuosity of Haydn’s String Quartet in C Op. 54 No. 2.