Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout".(Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A)(Sound Recording Review)

Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A The Beaux Arts Trio (augmented) and the Grumiaux Quartet (augmented). PentaTone Classics 5186 121.

Schubert's "Trout" was probably the first piece of chamber music I ever feel in love with, but until the appearance of the Beaux Arts' rendition on Philips in the mid seventies, I had never had a particular preference for any one recording. That all changed the first time I listened to this sublime performance and then listened to it again, and again.

The "Trout" piano quintet was inspired in part by a song of Schubert's, aptly "The Trout," and in part by an earlier quintet by Hummel. Schubert's friend, Albert Stadler, wrote years later that Schubert composed his quintet "at the special request of my friend Sylvester Paumgartner, who was absolutely delighted with the delicious little song. At his wish the quintet had to preserve the structure and instrumentation of the Hummel quintet, recte Septet, which at that time was still new. Schubert soon finished it; the score he retained himself." In any case, the song is really only quoted in the many variations of the fourth movement, but the whole thing is a delight from beginning to end, filled with the kind of melodies you go away humming for days.

The coupling this time out is Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, with George Pieterson on clarinet and violinist Arthur Grumiaux's quartet. It was ...