Sini Simonen, Alessandro Ruisi, Sào Soulez Larivière, Luba Tunnicliffe, and David Waterman

Mozart was the first composer to realise the great potential of adding an extra viola to the string quartet, and his exceptionally expressive quintet in g minor is a major masterpiece which resounds through the centuries.

Brahms also enjoys the extra sonorities offered by the medium and his quintet is full of sunlit vitality and warmth. Bruckner wrote very little chamber music apart from a viola quintet and this Adagio movement at its centre is sublime beyond words. The programme opens with a wonderful little-known rarity from late Beethoven.

This group includes the inspirational and poetic violinists Simonen and Ruisi, and the superb, richly gifted violists Larivière and Tunnicliffe.