The Maxwell Quartet is made up of four close friends who have known each other since their time in Scottish youth orchestras and music schools, where they played folk and classical music together. The quartet was officially formed in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where the founding members came together as postgraduate students. Their close connection to the folk music of their homeland meets the high art of the classical string quartet in their programmes.

Ancient psalms from the Scottish islands are followed by Edmund Finnis' first quartet, which was premiered in 2018. The Times discovered in it „touching swaying patterns, expressive reflections on the ferociously beautiful polyphony of Byrd and the natural ease of writing for strings“. This is followed by an arrangement by the same Wiliam Byrd (1540 - 1623), the Elizabethan 'father of music', who remained a Catholic throughout his life and wrote Catholic church music even during the dangerous turmoil of the English Reformation. At the end of the evening, the four full-bearded musicians leave the British Isles to venture into the heart of Viennese classical music with Beethoven's 15th String Quartet.