Piano Quintet in A Major

Compared with the masterly tragic chamber works of Schubert’s final years, the Trout Quintet is a lighter, airier creation written during a happy period of the composer’s life. On a walking tour in Upper Austria during the summer of 1819 he was the guest of a certain Sylvester Paumgartner, an amateur cellist who requested from Schubert a quintet, and stipulated not only the instrumentation—piano plus one of each string instrument, including double bass—but also that he incorporate a set of variations on his song “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”), written a couple of years earlier. A work was thus created, one with an effortless flow of melody and conversational interplay between instruments that has ensured its popularity ever since. The Trout Quintet’s arrangement into five movements gives it the feeling of a divertimento, starting with a lively and spacious "Allegro", launched with a twinkling piano flourish and a mysterious string chorale that develops into the principal theme. The vocally inspired tune of the slow movement is a further reminder that Schubert was the foremost lieder (song) composer of his time, while the “Scherzo" is a presto of irrepressible energetic drive. The fourth movement’s variations subject Schubert’s insouciant little song to a variety of treatments, sharing the tune between the five instruments over a range of contrasting accompaniments. The finale, with hints of Hungarian music, returns to the expansive and easygoing style that so compellingly characterises this most lovable of ensemble works.