Mozart: The Complete String Quintets

The string quintet is a chamber-music genre written for five bowed string instruments. Its most common instrumentations are either two violins, two violas, and cello (the "Mozart" configuration) or two violins, viola, and two cellos (the "Boccherini/Schubert" configuration). Less common are variants that add double bass to a string quartet, or other historic mixtures. Musically, string quintets extend the quartet’s contrapuntal clarity and conversational balance with an extra middle or low voice, enabling thicker harmony, broader registral span, and richer color. Composers typically adopt four-movement classical forms (fast–slow–minuet/scherzo–fast), but the quintet’s added sonority invites expansive slow movements, rustic or dance-like inner movements, and highly symphonic finales.