Franz Schubert wrote his Piano Quintet in A major, D. 677, popularly known as The Trout, in 1819, when he was only 22 years old. Like a good fraction of his works, however, it was published after his death, in 1829. Schubert didn't employ the traditional quintet lineup (piano + string quartet), opting instead for replacing one violin with a double bass. The composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel had rearranged his own Septet for the same instrumentation, and the Trout was actually written for a group of musicians coming together to play Hummel's work.
The nickname of the piece stems from the fourth movement, which is a set of variations on a lied by Schubert himself, named Die Forelle (the trout). Apparently the patron who commissioned the piece suggested that Schubert includ said set of variations.
Franz Schubert wrote his Piano Quintet in A major, D. 677, popularly known as The Trout, in 1819, when he was only 22 years old. Like a good fraction of his works, however, it was published after his death, in 1829. Schubert didn't employ the traditional quintet lineup (piano + string quartet), opting instead for replacing one violin with a double bass. The composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel had rearranged his own Septet for the same instrumentation, and the Trout was actually written for a group of musicians coming together to play Hummel's work.
The nickname of the piece stems from the fourth movement, which is a set of variations on a lied by Schubert himself, named Die Forelle (the trout). Apparently the patron who commissioned the piece suggested that Schubert includ said set of variations.