Formed in 1969, the Tokyo String Quartet has been playing now for 44 years. True they’ve traded in a few players over the years for younger models, but the time has finally come when the last original member, violist Kazuhide Isomura, has made the decision to retire from the concert platform. Hardly surprising then that their final visit to our fair shores should be tinged with sadness, but also provide a last opportunity to witness one of the classiest of ensembles in the business, still at the top of their game.

Peter Sculthorpe has been a prolific and steady composer of string quartets throughout his long career. His 16th found its inspiration in From Nothing To Zero, a book of extracts from letters written by asylum seekers held in Australian detention centres. The music depicts the bleak inhumanity of man towards man (and in some cases towards children) in uncompromising terms and with little of the nature poetry one associates with Sculthorpe’s distinctive style. A loosely interpolated love chant from Central Afghanistan makes for a wistful central theme. What little light there is can be found in occasional bursts of bird song that flutter upwards towards the light, a representation...