Sensitive Handling

It's always refreshing to find a string quartet prepared to go out on a limb in terms of repertoire even if only slightly. So no Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert from the Villiers String Quartet on this occasion (Derby Chamber Music, Multi-Faith Centre, Derby University, Derby, UK, 2 December 2016). Instead, they began with Tchaikovsky's Quartet No 1 — not particularly out-of-the-way, given the popularity of its second movement, but not the first work that comes to mind in terms of core quartet repertoire, either...