Maxwell Davies’s intensity of expression is here distilled into chamber music, by turns simple and complex, furious and tender…The disc closes with the composer’s very last work, a brief movement from an unfinished string quartet, its radiant finish a touching finale to this powerful disc.

The unique character of Davies’s late style is grasped and understood in the Hebrides Ensemble’s highly nuanced performances, described by the composer as ‘a crew of a ship that comes into harbour now and again with supplies. And not just the bare essentials. There are always surprises, little treats that one isn’t expecting.’

This beguiling — even transfigured —sequence of late works by Davies ends with String Quartet Movement (2016), from a quartet unfinished at his death, and suggests a touching symmetry with the outset of his prolific career and the freestanding Quartet Movement of 1952.

a final, elusive String Quartet Movement that remained unfinished, evaporat[es] into nothing at the close. Prospero-like, Max lays down his manuscripts: the dedicated Hebrides Ensemble, led by cellist William Conway, feel in close and constant touch with the composer.

These are stand-out, definitive performances, beautifully recorded by this enterprising Scottish label.