The String Quintets

“… a record of the highest quality all round. Superb!” *****

*****   Coup de Cœur

Editor’s Choice – Chamber section

“… 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, making nonsense of the once-prevalent image of Mendelssohn as a genteel lightweight…”

Outstanding

“Both of Mendelssohn’s (two-viola) String Quintets are mellifluous masterpieces, music of great expressive depth … The Doric String Quartet and guest Timothy Ridout do these scores’ emotions, elegances and eloquences proud, beautifully recorded by Jonathan Cooper at Potton Hall …”

“The Doric String Quartet, reinforced by Timothy Ridout on 2nd viola, does not simply serve up a light, nice and melodious Mendelssohn, but shows that this music can be experienced very deeply, making it more contrasting and thus a real field of discussion between the five instruments, in which the constant change of alliances is exciting. The sound is characterized by great clarity, by technically excellent music-making, but ultimately it is the rhetoric and the creative imagination that make for a stimulating musical atmosphere.” ****