Franz Schubert

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Franz Schubert was born in Vienna in 1797.

The richness and subtlety of his melodic and harmonic language, the originality of his accompaniments, his elevation of marginal genres and the enigmatic nature of his uneventful life have invited a wide range of readings of both man and music that remain among the most hotly debated in musical circles.

The five movements of the "Trout" Quintet suggest a looser, divertimento-like structure, while the presence of the double bass gave Schubert the opportunity to exploit open, airy textures. The recapitulation of the opening movement, beginning in the subdominant, is a compressed transposition of the exposition, while the second and last movements make considerable use of transposed repetition, all factors suggesting that the work was composed rapidly. The variation fourth movement is based on Die Forelle, the popular song composed two years earlier, with the song's "A" phrase repeated to give the quintet theme added weight. In spite of its modest technical demands and accusations that its appeal is only of the surface, the "Trout" Quintet projects a timeless freshness that has ensured its perpetual popularity.

Piano Quintet in A major D.667 (1819).
There are five movements:
1. Allegro vivace
2. Andante
3. Scherzo: presto
4. Andantino - Allegretto
5. Allegro giusto

The performers were:
Violin, Noah Bendix-Balgley (1st Concertmaster Berliner Philharmoniker)
Viola, Máté Szűcs (1st Principal Viola Berliner Philharmoniker)
Cello, Bruno Delepelaire (1st Principal Cello Berliner Philharmoniker)
Double bass, Matthew McDonald (1st Principal Double Bass Berliner Philharmoniker)
Piano, Yannick Rafalimanana

The double bass replaces the second violin.