At the first on October 15, Quartetto per archi Op 1 fell on appreciative ears.

"A lot of people came up to me after the concert and said that they had really enjoyed it. I was surprised how many, really," says Sara Bitlloch, the Elias' first violin.

Now the quartet offer Officum Breve: In Memorium Andreae Szervánszky Op 28, the Elias having worked with Kurtág on his string quartet works, "opening up a new world for us," says Sara.

"It's almost as if he 'feels' the music to you and it was life-changing, somehow, to work with him. We have always loved his music, more so since working on it with him because it revealed even more to us.

"I think it's the most expressive music we've ever played and, when you're talking about 20th-century music, that's quite something.

"A lot of it is so dry or intellectual and this is completely the opposite.

"Every note, every gesture is totally heartfelt and has so much within it. One note is totally different to the next one and it's so touching to feel that from him, how much every note means to him."

So working with Kurtág (who emulates Webern's musical philosophy of why use 20 notes when one will do) has given the Elias greater insight into his music?

"Yes. Certainly, certainly. I think it's true of every composer that what's on the page is only a small percent of what the music is about, but with his it's not quite so.

"There is so much already on the page. Every note has a totally different marking to the next and when you work on the music with him you realise even more …" – the Catalan violinist searches for vocabulary. The significance? "Yes. Absolutely!"

Kurtág was finding his musical voice in his Op 1 having long found it by the time Op 28, Officum Breve, his third string quartet and also played without a break, was reached 30 years later in 1989.

The work has a more refined, as well as tighter feel. Indeed, Op 1 can be called long-winded with six movements over 17 minutes compared with Op 28's 15 movements in 14 minutes.

The longest is the tenth, "Homage to Webern in a transcription of his Canon for string quartet," as Sara describes it.

"That's an amazing thing, how one can be so influenced by something (Webern) and yet so individual at the same time.

"It's much more sparse than Op 1. He's only kept the important note kind of thing."

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