String Quintet No. 1 in A major, Op. 18, MWV R 21
String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 87, MWV R 33

The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics around the globe. Following their acclaimed recordings of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, here the quartet is joined by leading violist Timothy Ridout for an album of Mendelssohn’s two string quintets. These were written at the beginning and end of his short but remarkable compositional life. Mendelssohn composed No. 1 in 1826, shortly before the Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, when he was just seventeen. No. 2 was written in 1845, when he was thirty-six, a year before the premiere of Elijah and just two years before his death.

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Recording: Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk; 13 – 15 May 2021. Timothy Ridout plays a viola made by Peregrino Micheli di Zanetto c. 1565 – 75. Hélene Clément plays an instrument made by Francesco Guissani from 1843, previously owned by F. Bridge and Britten.