Five string virtuosos including violinists Isaac Stern and Cho-Liang Lin, cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Sharon Robinson, and violist Jaime Laredo create an all-star chamber ensemble in Sony Classical's new recording of the string quintets of Franz Schubert and Luigi Boccherini.

The String Quintet in C Major, D.956, is one of Schubert's most substantial and admired chamber works. One of the last works Schubert wrote in his brief and difficult life, the Quintet is an extraordinarily personal expression by the composer and a particular favorite among performers. Boccherini's String Quintet in E Major, Op.13, No.5, is famous primarily for its brief third movement, a minuet that achieved an independent popularity in a variety of srrangements and treatments where it is known simply as "Boccherini's Minuet".

Stern and Ma have each previously recorded the Schubert quintet for Sony Classical, Stern some 40 years ago in a famous Columbia Masterworks recording with Pablo Casals, and Ma in a 1985 recording with the Cleveland Quartet. In different combinations, all the performers on this recording have been frequent collaborators in chamber music repertoire for Sony Classical. Stern, Ma and Laredo, with pianist Emanuel Ax, won a Gramophone Award and a 1991 Grammy Award for their recording of the Brahms Piano Quartets (S2K 45846). All five performers, with Ax and violist Michael Tree, have also recorded the Brahms Sextets with the Theme and Variations for Piano (S2K 45820) for Sony Classical.