Program Mozart (1756 - 1791) Trio in E-flat major, Kegelstatt, K.498 Schubert (1797 - 1828) Piano Quintet, Trout About the Program The German word Kegelstatt means "a place where skittles are played", akin to a duckpin bowling alley. This clarinet-viola-piano trio was first played in 1786 -- the clarinet was still a relatively new instrument in Mozart's time, and this trio, along with Mozart's Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto, helped increase the instrument's popularity. No composer before Mozart had written for this combination of instruments ever before. The Piano Quintet, Trout was composed in 1819, when Schubert was 22 years old. However, it was not published until 1829, a year after his death. The piece is known as Trout because the fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier Lied Die Forelle (The Trout). The quintet was written for Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist from Steyr, Upper Austria, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the Lied. Sets of variations on melodies from his Lieder are found in four other works by Schubert: the Death and the Maiden Quartet, the "Trockne Blumen" (dried flowers) Variations for Flute and Piano, the Wanderer Fantasy, and the Fantasia for Violin and Piano in C major.
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