They play Op. 18 as if the ink were still wet — quick, argumentative, entirely unbothered by two centuries of received wisdom about how early Beethoven ought to sound. The F major opens at a clip that would be reckless if the ensemble were any less exact, and the Adagio that follows is the finest thing on the disc: unhurried without ever going slack, and shaped as a single line rather than a series of beautiful moments.
What marks the Marin out is the second violin and viola, who refuse to be inner parts. Reinholt and Ferrers push back constantly, and the arguments they start are the reason these performances stay alive on a fourth hearing.
The recorded sound — a cold church, four days in February — is close but not airless. Two more volumes to come; on this evidence they will be worth waiting for.