Gramophone Magazine
April 2022
Editor's Choice

Doric String Quartet, Timothy Ridout (viola)

Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 1 in A major, Op. 18
Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 87

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 they are joined by leading violist Timothy Rideout for this album of his two string quintets. Mendelssohn's two String Quintets were written at the beginning and end of his short but remarkable compositional life. No 1 was written in 1826, shortly before the Overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', when Mendelssohn was just seventeen. No.2 was written in 1845, when he was thirty-six, a year before the premier of Elijah and just two years before his death.

"Minutely attentive to Mendelssohn’s detailed dynamic and phrase markings, they yield to none in polish and precision. True to form, they characterise with gusto." - Gramophone Magazine, April 2022.