It has been almost 20 years since the Emerson Quartet was in Australia, and Musica Viva audiences have been on tenterhooks for this nine-concert comeback tour by the “finest string quartet to come out of America” with their swag of Grammy and Gramophone Awards.

Emerson String Quartet. Photo © Lisa Mazzucco

Judging by the brace of opening Sydney concerts it’s safe to assume that all chamber music lovers will agree that it has been well worth the wait.

The New York-based group has attained legendary status over the 43 years it has been going and during that time it has only had one change of personnel, with Welshman Paul Watkins replacing founding cellist David Finckel in 2013. Lead violin duties are shared between Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer with the redoubtable Lawrence Dutton on viola.

“There’s a sort of perfection about the four voices of the string quartet,” Drucker says. “There’s a balance which can be easily stretched to emphasise one instrument, or to have the perfect blend of the four.”

The Emersons embody this ideal. And with four decades of performing together there is a rich history. “In our [score] parts we can see almost...