Allegro vivace * Andante * Scherzo: Presto * Andantino – Allegretto * Allegro giusto

This quintet, a perfect example of Schubert’s genius, was published in 1829, 10 years after Schubert wrote it and a year after his death at the age of 31. It was nicknamed ‘The Trout Quintet’ (Forellenquintett) because Schubert’s lied or art song Die Forelle was the origin of a set of variations he used in the quintet’s fourth movement, Andantino-Allegretto. It was commissioned by a music lover, Sylvester Paumgartner, for the same group of instruments used by Hummel in his popular Septet – piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass. An absolute favourite in the chamber music repertoire, this quintet is forever etched in the collective memory in the recording made by Daniel Baremboim (piano), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Pinchas Zukerman (viola), Jacqueline du Pre (cello) and Zubin Mehta (double bass). A film by Christopher Nupen of the backstage antics of this celebrated quintet and their incredible performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London’s Southbank Centre in 1969 is on YouTube.