The Pacifica Quartet have more chance to show their mettle in the less extravagant Second String Quartet…both pieces are excellent examples of how far a composer can go on intuition, energy and talent alone.

The American composer lived even longer than Elliott Carter, who esteemed him...The three-movement Piano Quintet and String Quartet No 2 are weighty, spirited utterances in a style hard to seize as Ornsteinian, but worth attention, especially when performed with such panache.

Forcefully rhythmic passages built from repeating patterns alternate with sweeping, rhapsodic paragraphs; the Quintet especially is full of eastern harmonic inflections. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Pacifica Quartet are whole-hearted advocates, though even they can’t disguise the fact that Ornstein’s obsessive treatment of small blocks of musical material becomes monotonous in both works.

Ornstein goes for the jugular in the febrile outer movements, shot through with Russian folk material and rhythmic fire, but offers respite in the achingly tender Andante Lamentoso.