The Doric String Quartet is firmly established as one of the leading quartets of it's 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.