Benjamin Britten wrote the first two of his numbered string quartets in 1941 and 1945. The First was in the US, where it was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge; the Second was written for the 250th anniversary of Purcell's death, and just post-dated the groundbreaking success of the opera Peter Grimes. The Third came 30 years later, when the ill composer was in Venice, and he incorporated references to his opera Death in Venice into it. The first two works have long been eclipsed by the Third, in which the closing Passacaglia stands out as extraordinarily valedictory – Britten's partner, Peter Pears, described the work as being "of a profound beauty more touching than anything else, radiant, wise, new, mysterious". These new performances by the Takács Quartet are also radiant and wise. url.ie/4qdb