He worked on the Quintet and two other major chamber pieces[1] in the summer of 1918 while staying at Brinkwells near Fittleworth in Sussex.
W. H. "Billy" Reed considered that all three were "influenced by the quiet and peaceful surroundings during that wonderful summer".
The Quintet was first performed on 21 May 1919, by the pianist William Murdoch, the violinists Albert Sammons and W. H. Reed, the violist Raymond Jeremy and the cellist Felix Salmond.
It is big chamber music, with at times an almost orchestral sonority to it...' The Quintet was first recorded by Ethel Hobday with the Spencer Dyke Quartet for the National Gramophonic Society in December 1925.
It was subsequently recorded electrically for HMV by Harriet Cohen and the Stratton Quartet at the beginning of October 1933, immediately before the composer became seriously ill. Test pressings were rushed to Elgar's bedside; the pleasure he gained from them inspired Fred Gaisberg to record the Quintet as a Christmas present to the ailing composer.