Mátyás Seiber’s three string quartets span his career, from the astonishingly assured student essay of the first – composed in 1924 at the age of just eighteen – to the mature synthesis of his third and final Quartetto Lirico.

Seiber’s work was nourished by several of the twentieth century’s most important stylistic trends, from jazz and serialism to the folk music of his native Hungary. He was also, like many of the mid-century’s most significant artists, an émigré and an influential teacher; fifty years after his untimely death, Hugh Wood’s booklet essay pays tribute to his lasting influence on a generation of British composers.