Johann Georg Albrechtsberger stated that Josef Eybler was «one of his best composition pupils» and «after Mozart, the greatest musical genius in Vienna». Mozart himself had deemed Eybler «a painstaking composer, and a musician equally adroit in both chamber and sacred music» and thought it «only a pity that there are so few like him». Mozart entrusted Eybler with the task of coaching the singers for Cosi fan tutte, and the two men were close friends until Mozart’s death in 1791.

The quintet – in varying combinations of instruments – was Eybler’s favourite form of chamber music. The Quintet in B-flat Major was published in 1801 as opus 6/1; the Quintet in A Major in 1803 as opus 6/2. Eybler’s string quintets with double bass must be regarded as a rarity in the whole canon of chamber music. Their particular charm is derived from the absence of any hierarchy in which one instrument, for example the violin, predominates. Instead, Eybler chose to give extensive solos to all instruments.

The Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt presents the world-premiere recording of these two masterpieces from the classical period.