NDR Kammerkonzert

String quintets

String quintets have always stood in the shadows of the incredible abundance of string quartets. And not every composer was able to get on with the genre: When asked why he wrote more than 70 quartets but not a single quintet, Joseph Haydn said that he can express everything with four voices and simply »can’t find« the fifth. But Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven did find the additional voice for their quintets – fortunately!