Beethoven's "Von Herzen - möge es wieder - zu Herzen gehn!" [from the heart, to the heart] sums up quite a lot of what moves me in music – be it folk, popular or classical. I don't take to music that is purely commercial, nor music that is purely cerebral.

I bought a Wigmore Hall Live recording by the Skampa Quartet because it was a very cheap offer, and because it contained quartets by Mozart, Smetana and Shostakovich. As someone who loves Mozart's music, I have always been slightly perplexed at my reaction to the string quartets that never, it seems to me, go to my heart in the way that so much of Mozart's music does. The string quartets have always sounded to me merely expertly written. K 575 in D major on this Skampa disc did not convert me; despite the late Köchel number, the music just passed pleasantly but unremarkably. Very puzzling.

So on to Smetana; Czech music usually reaches directly to the heart. But his D minor quartet (number two) did little for me. Finally, Shostakovich and his eighth quartet in C minor Op 110, and here was the real thing, with remarkable music sending frissons to the listener, and all the tensions and traumas of the Stalin years communicated from the heart, to the heart. I will treasure this CD for the Shostakovich, and pass over the Mozart and the Smetana. Very odd.