'The String Quintet typifies Schubert's late style at its most profound. Composed in the year of his death (he was unbelievably still only 31), it is difficult to associate music of such awesome harmonic boldness and innovation with someone who, in the last throes of syphillis, had just over a month to live. The Raphael Ensemble, led by Anthony Marwood, plays with an engaging freshness, simplicity and purity, tantalisingly suggesting that this was after all the work of a young man with plenty still to live for. It's a captivating reading that will blow away any Schubertian cobwebs and have one falling in love with this masterwork all over again' (Classic FM Magazine)

'Rarement Quintette fut plus soigneusement lu, plus finement détaillé et exprim, de tout son suc musical' (Répertoire, France)

'Superlatives become ephemeral and critical criteria moulder into hollow pedantry when applied to an issue of this stature. The Raphel Ensemble's account of Schubert's String Quintet joins a small but illustrious pantheon of truly exceptional recordings of this masterwork ... a triumph for Hyperion and the Raphaels' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)

'The playing has a kind of disciplined abandon that's rare enough on the concert platform and rarer still in the recording studio. The sound is forward and immediate enough to catch some moments of roughness in the tone. But the thrust is unfailingly persuasive, and the players are as sensitive when they delve inward as when they effectively seem to be playing their hearts out' (The Irish Times)