"The Trout"

Schubert had written the song, "The Trout," ("Die Forelle") when he was 20. Two years later, he was travelling in the Austrian mountains and was the guest of a mining administrator, Sylvester Paumgartner, who was also a devoted music lover. Paumgartner knew Schubert's song, and the composer agreed to incorporate it into a piece of chamber music, for the unusual grouping of piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass.

The fourth movement, based on "The Trout," makes use of one of the most durable of all musical forms, the theme and variations - a technique used by composers from the Elizabethans to Bach to 20th Century modernists. (It's also central to jazz.)

	Schubert begins by presenting the theme in the strings, in a version even simpler than the original song. ( REALAUDIO 14.4 )
	In the first variation, the melody hardly changes at all, but Schubert brings in the piano, and develops the accompaniment in the strings. ( REALAUDIO 14.4 )
	In the third variation, the melody is still there, but unobtrusively, in the bass. The focus is on brilliant keyboard work. Here's where the pianist gets to show off. ( REALAUDIO 14.4 )