Description
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). Compared to other major chamber works by Schubert, such as the last three string quartets and the string quintet, the Trout Quintet is a leisurely work, characterized by lower structural coherence, especially in its outer movements and the Andante.
