Chilingirian Quartet, Prunella Pacey

Mozart String Quintet No. 1 in B flat, K.174
Mendelssohn String Quintet No. 1 in A, Op. 18
Mozart String Quintet No. 3 in C, K.515

Levon Chilingirian violin
Ronald Birks violin
Susie Mészáros viola
Stephen Orton cello
Prunella Pacey viola

The Mozart Quintets – Concert 1

String Quintets are divided into two principal types – those that add an extra cello to a quartet, and those that add an extra viola. This is the first of three concerts to survey all six Mozart String Quintets, all of which feature an extra viola, that most special of instruments to Mozart, who played it himself in quartets with his great friend Haydn.

Each programme, performed by the renowned Chilingirian Quartet, with violist Prunella Pacey, contrasts two Mozart quintets with other famous examples of the ‘viola’ quintet medium – this first one features Mendelssohn’s striking A major Quintet from the early 1830s.