TOULOUSE
Franz Schubert’s Quintet in A major is undoubtedly one of the composer’s unmissable ‘hits’. It takes its nickname from the work’s fourth movement, a Theme and Variations in which the composer quotes one of his own Lieder entitled ‘The Trout’. A masterpiece of Romantic chamber music, this piece, which transports us to rural, intoxicating, at times profound, even tormented moods, is also a true journey into the artist’s soul.
A contemporary of her Austrian counterpart, Louise Farrenc was one of the great pianists of her time. She studied and later taught at the Paris Conservatoire. Her magnificent Second Piano Quintet, with its whirling flourishes, oscillating between solemnity and passion, undoubtedly deserved to be celebrated for the very first time in a season of Les Clefs de Saint-Pierre!
