Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major "The Trout"; Variations on "Trockne Blumen"; Litanei auf das Fest aller Seelen.(Sound Recording Review)

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major "The Trout"; Variations on "Trockne Blumen"; Litanei auf das Fest aller Seelen. Braley, Capucon, Causse, Capucon, and Posch. Virgin Classics 7243-5-45563-2.

Can there ever be too many recordings of Franz Schubert's most felicitous work, the "Trout" Quintet? Not when they are as exuberant, as intoxicating, as joyful as the one presented here by pianist Frank Braley, violist Renard Capucon, violist Gerard Causse, cellist Gautier Capucon, and double-bassist Alois Posch.

Schubert wrote this little gem while vacationing in the town of Steyr in the north of Austria, a town he loved. But he apparently only wrote it for his own and his friends' amusement because he never published it, and it was never performed in public in his lifetime. Still, it has proved enduring, and practically every chamber group in the world has since played and recorded it.

The present recording finds five people performing it who have played it together many times before. But unlike so many of the fine, mature recordings of the piece by artists like Brendel, Curzon, Richter, Ax, and the like, it's a delight to hear what is so consciously a youthful performance by five relatively young, albeit rather well-known European artists. After all, Schubert wrote it when he was only in his early twenties himself and at a happy time in his life. One might expect as much from its performance.

Most every movement shows a vigor and ...