String quintet
A string quintet is a chamber music ensemble made up of five string instruments . The line- up usually consists of two violins , two violas and a violoncello or, more rarely, two violins, a viola and two cellos (for example with Luigi Boccherini ). String quintets with a double bass are unusual .
Mozart wrote important compositions for two violas and completed most of his quartet cycles with a quintet. Well-known string quintets with the same line-up are by Ludwig van Beethoven , Louis Spohr , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Anton Bruckner , Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák (also a work by him with a double bass).
Probably the best-known string quintet is the string quintet in C major D 956 (op. Posth. 163) by Franz Schubert for two violins, viola and two cellos.
