During his lifetime, Spohr was celebrated as one of the most important composers of early German romanticism. This final volume in the Naxos survey of Spohr’s String Quintets features the often melancholic Seventh Quintet, coloured to an extent by Spohr’s reaction to the 1848 Berlin Revolution, when the forces of repression were regaining the upper hand. The assured and melodically rich String Sextet led to renewed interest in the medium and to the two masterpieces of Brahms. The Potpourri, scored for five string instruments and including variations on a Russian folk-tune and Mozart’s Là ci darem la mano, was one of the composer’s own favourite works.