Mendelssohn was famously acclaimed (by Schumann) as ‘the Mozart of the 19th century’ and (by Liszt) as ‘Bach reborn’. Both accolades seem apt to the A major String Quintet, a youthful miracle to set alongside the Octet and A minor String Quartet, Op 13. The gliding opening Allegro sounds like Mozart gently refracted through a Mendelssohnian prism, while the Scherzo weaves its gossamer textures with the nonchalant contrapuntal virtuosity honed in his studies of Bach. At the Quintet’s heart is an elegiac Intermezzo whose impassioned, high-lying violin-writing commemorates Mendelssohn’s friend and violin teacher Eduard Rietz.

Composed just two years before Mendelssohn’s death, the B flat Quintet is hardly less fine. Here is another late work to belie the old cliché that his genius declined irretrievably after the brilliance of youth. True, parts of the outer movements can sound like a scaled-down violin concerto. But the opening Allegro’s coursing energy is balanced by characteristic pools of introspection. After an Andante scherzando of delicate whimsy – quintessential Mendelssohn, this – the searing Adagio recreates a tragic operatic scena in instrumental terms.

Long overshadowed by Mendelssohn’s string quartets, these superb quintets have been coupled in a clutch of recent recordings, high among them those by the augmented Mendelssohn (BIS) and Leipzig (MDG, 13/13) Quartets, and the Bartholdy Quintet (AVI, 9/21). The Doric and Timothy Ridout now join this elite list. Minutely attentive to Mendelssohn’s detailed dynamic and phrase markings, they yield to none in polish and precision. True to form, they characterise with gusto, making nonsense of the once-prevalent image of Mendelssohn as a genteel lightweight. No felicity of part-writing escapes them. Balancing urgency and grace, the triple-time first movement of Op 18 is delightfully airborne, with phrases floated over the bar line. The Doric are acutely alive to the sudden shafts of mystery within the fleet, feathery Scherzo and unflinchingly mine the Intermezzo’s extremes of stillness and darkly swirling passion. Their exquisite lead back to the main theme, now at a higher octave, is one among many moments to savour. As ever, the Doric subtly vary their vibrato and make expressive use of portamento, shunned by many groups today but a crucial part of a 19th-century player’s armoury.

Without careful handling, the quasi-orchestral writing in the outer movements of the B flat Quintet can come across as merely busy. Led with virtuoso panache by Alex Redington, the Doric pass the test triumphantly. Rhythms are buoyant and supple, textures invariably lucid, with each contrapuntal strand clearly audible. What lingers longest in the memory is the quality and variety of the soft playing: in the lyrical second themes, caressed more affectionately than in the rival recordings, or in the spectral hush they conjure near the start of the first movement’s development. The Doric bring a playful lightness of touch to the Andante and reveal their full colouristic range in the Adagio, from the stark, desiccated opening, through climaxes of febrile intensity, to the long dying fall of the coda.

The moto perpetuo finale, with its skittering central fugato, has often had a bad press. Mendelssohn thought it unworthy of him. In the Doric’s brilliant, quicksilver performance, offset by moments of reflective tenderness, it’s hard to see why.