'Trout' Quintet - D667- Mov. 4

[haydnguy]

'Theme and Variations - Movement 4


The Trout Quintet is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 667. The work was composed in 1819, when Schubert was only 22 years old; it was not published, however, until 1829, a year after his death.

The piece is known as the Trout because the fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier Lied "Die Forelle" (The Trout). Apparently, the quintet was written for Sylvester Paumgartner, of Steyr in Upper Austria, a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the Lied. A set of variations on a melody from one of his Lieder is found in three other works by Schubert: the Death and the Maiden Quartet, the Trockne Blumen Variations for flute and piano (D. 802) and the Wanderer Fantasy.

4. Andantino - Allegretto in D major (the subdominant of the work's main key), a theme and variations on Schubert's Lied Die Forelle. As typical of some other variation movements by Schubert (in contrast to Beethoven's style), the variations do not transform the original theme into new thematic material; rather, they concentrate on melodic decoration and changes of mood. In the first variations, each variation features the main theme played by a different instrument or group. Schubert's innovation and originality lies in the fifth variation, coming after the traditional variation in the minor key. Rather than returning immediately to the tonic major, Schubert begins this variation in the flat submediant (B flat major), and creates a series of modulations within the variation, eventually leading back to the movement's main key, at the beginning of the final sixth variation. Schubert repeated this unique harmonic structure within a variation movement, in three of his later compositions: the octet in F major, D. 803 (fourth movement); the piano sonata in A minor, D. 845 (second movement); and the Impromptu in B-flat major, D. 935 No. 3. The concluding variation is highly similar to the original Lied, and shares the same characteristic accompaniment in the piano, based on a musical motif picturing the trout appearing and disappearing in the water (depicted by rising and falling notes, respectively).

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et-NH8N3O_8"]YouTube - Trout Quintet - D667 - Mov. 4[/ame]

[Herzeleide]

I love this piece.

[Herodotas]

I love the Trout Quintet too - but am I being sacriligious in suggesting that I find the sound of the piano rather jarring against the mellower tones of the strings? It has unfortunate associations with the Palm Court Orchestra for me. The Piano Trio on the other hand doesn't seem to produce the same effect.

[haydnguy]

Originally Posted by Herodotas

I love the Trout Quintet too - but am I being sacriligious in suggesting that I find the sound of the piano rather jarring against the mellower tones of the strings? It has unfortunate associations with the Palm Court Orchestra for me. The Piano Trio on the other hand doesn't seem to produce the same effect.

Do you think it's this particular recording or do you feel that way generally about the piece? I *think this is the only version I've heard.

[Herodotas]

No - it's how I've always felt about it, since I first heard it when I was about 17! It has always sounded slightly "old fashioned" to me in that way.......a parlour piece rather than a chamber one if you get my drift! (Perhaps I have been too much a devotee of Hinge and Brackett!). But it's a prejudice I quickly discard of course - it is a wonderful quintet!

[haydnguy]

Perhaps it could be thought of as the trout jarring the peaceful waters as they jump and play.

No, I know it's not that.