Piano Quintet in A major D.667 “The Trout” (1819)

There is something of the divertimento in Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet - not only in the presence of a double bass and the inclusion of an Andantino theme and variations as well as an Andante slow movement but also in its avoidance of serious issues. Indeed, one of the most remarkable aspects of the work is the way it sustains undivided attention without postulating adversity. Some of the modulations might be surprising but they are more magical than disconcerting, even the changes to the minor in the Andante which motivate melodiously thoughtful duets between viola and cello in anticipation of similar episodes in the great String Quintet in C. There is another change to the minor in the fourth of the variations on Schubert’s song Die Forelle (The Trout) but it is scarcely more than a preparation for the inspired cello variation that follows. Die Forelle was apparently a favourite of the cellist Sylvester Paumgartner who commissioned the work - in which case he was richly rewarded both here and in the distant echoes of the song in the march-time Finale.

Although the piano part is one of the principal adornments of the “Trout” Quintet, the stimulus for the work came not from a pianist but from a cellist. It was commissioned in 1819 by Sylvester Paumgartner, a leading light in the musical life of Steyr in Upper Austria where Schubert liked to spend the summer. It is a summer-holiday kind of work, more congenial serenade than serious quintet, generously spread over five movements including both an Andante and an Andantino.

The unusual ensemble – piano set against a combination of violin, viola, cello and double-bass rather than the standard string quartet – is said to have beeen modelled on a Grand Quintet by Hummel. Whether it was or not, Paumgartner cannot have been displeased by Schubert’s scoring here. Certainly, while giving the work its very distinctive colour, the presence of the bass allows the cello to take a more active interest in the melodic material than it could if it were tied to its normal bass-line duties. The viola might have felt a little put out by the arrangement but, with the weight of the piano fequently reduced to a single line in octaves, no single instrument dominates what is essentially a convivial conversation between friends. While it is not the most eloquent member of the group, the bass is encouraged to make its solo voice heard, most effectively perhaps in the magical exchanges of a phrase from the opening theme in the development section of the first movement.

Released from its bass-line duties, the cello also has the opportunity to ally itself with the viola from time to time, as it does in a poignant minor-key episode in the Andante, anticipating similarly melodious and thoughtful duets between viola and cello in the slow movement of the great String Quintet in C major. There is another example of poetic string scoring, offset in this case by delicate piano octaves, in the quiet centre of the Trio section that comes between the vigorous outer sections of the Scherzo.

It was presumably to please Paumgartner that the fourth movement takes the form of a set of variation on Die Forelle (“The Trout”), which is said to have been the cellist’s favourite Schubert song. If in the case it seems strange that it is not the cello but the violin that introduces the melody, the fact is that Schubert reserves the cello not only for the inspired fifth variation but also the last echo of the song, now with its rippling accompaniment, at the end of the movement. Or is there another, more distant echo of Die Forelle in the second subject of the otherwise march-like Finale?