From the old central Europe to explorations of the New World, Dvořák and Dohnányi composed luminous string quartets, oscillating between glorification of nature and sublimation of the Romantic period. Bartók’s darker composition, in 1915, bears witness to anguish at the imminent apocalypse. After recording the great Romantics and the Classical splendours of Haydn, after opening the gates of the twentieth century with Ravel and Debussy, the Quatuor Modigliani now traces the connections between the Danube, the Vltava and the Mississippi.