Protean Quartet - Tempus omnia vincit - Gramophone

International music competitions gifting a recording as part of their first-prize package may be increasingly common but few competition-label partnerships can boast the longevity, consistently high artistic standards and sense of identity as the one between the biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition and Linn Records. In fact, this is a series that now feels so synonymous with genuine and worthwhile additions to the catalogue that it’s actually worthy of collection as a set. 

The playing realises the ideas wonderfully well. The quartet sound itself combines a lovely rich sonority with a tremendous span of weight, timbre and attack; the violins have a fabulous, brightly earthy blend ... Beautiful stuff, while also being something you can get your intellectual teeth into.