Inevitable Rifts for string quintet, like Schubert’s Quintet in C, D.956, adds an extra cello to the string quartet. This undoubtedly makes for a richer sound, but what I wanted to explore was the tensions and differences created by forming an alliance between the viola and two cellos quite separate from the two violins, a rift heard at the very start with the lower instruments playing dark, pulsating chords, and the violins moving together in a slow broken cantilena. As the drama unfolds there ...