As an elite string player  whose Amar Quartet was one of Europe's most exploratory chamber groups  Hindemith was perfectly placed to write his powerful sequence of string quartets. One of the greatest quartets of its time  the technically sophisticated No. 5  Op. 32 reveals Hindemith as a master of the medium. Twenty years were to pass before No. 6 in E flat  written in America  which reveals similar qualities of control  whilst No. 7 in E flat was written for himself to play in a domestic setting with female students from Yale University and his wife  an amateur cellist. It concludes one of the twentieth century's greatest cycles of quartets.