East Neuk Festival: Trout Quintet
Crail Parish Church, 3/7/26
Christian Zacharias (piano), members of Cuarteto Quiroga, Ander Perrino Cabello (bass)
Crail Church was the venue for the afternoon concert of 3rd July in this year’s East Neuk Festival. The headline work was Schubert’s 1819 Piano Quintet in A, D.667, ‘The Trout’, with German conductor/pianist Christian Zacharias at the piano, Spanish bassist Ander Perrino Cabello, and members of the Spanish string quartet Cuarteto Quiroga. Before the Schubert, Christian Zacharias was introduced by Festival Director Svend McEwan-Brown, revealing nothing further about the unprogrammed selection of solo piano pieces with which the concert would open, recalling the Closing Concert of the 2022 Festival, a pianistic mystery tour titled ‘Christian Zacharias Carte Blanche’. Svend promised to list the pieces on the website one they were known. That hasn’t happened yet (or at least I can’t find it), so I am very glad I took notes.
Christian Zacharias took the microphone and the floor as genial host. He said he would play 2 sets of 3 pieces, identifying them only after each set. All, he said, were recent discoveries for him, expressing delight that, even at the age of 76, he was still learning. The first piece, in 3 in a major key, was very like Scarlatti, with pleasing ebb and flow of dynamic contrasts, including echoed phrases at lower volume. So exquisite that my scalp was tingling. And, it was indeed Scarlatti, a sonata I’ve not heard before. The second piece was more modern with hints of jazz and a mood of insouciant melancholy. I wrote down “Paris in the rain – lovers oblivious”. Tickled to discover it was Poulenc’s ‘Hommage à Édith Piaf’, written in 1959. The last piece of the first set was “moody, lovely fluidity of tempo, also quite like Scarlatti”. It was revealed to be François Couperin’s ‘Les Ombres Errantes’.
The first piece of the second set I knew already, because Couperin’s ‘Les Barricades Mystérieuses’ received the Thomas Adès treatment in a sultry 1994 arrangement for clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, and double bass. Scrumptious. Having been already ‘switched on’ to Poulenc, the remaining two pieces were recognisable as him in impressionistic/romantic mood, subsequently named as his Intermezzo No. 2 in D-Flat Major and ‘Mélancolie’, both gorgeous and new to me.
Schubert’s ‘Trout Quintet’ is one of those sunny uncomplicated pieces of pure entertainment music with a Kaffeekonzert vibe, which the presence of the double bass in the texture does nothing to dispel. Expressive of the beauty of nature undoubtedly, but while Beethoven gets caught in a thunderstorm, Schubert admires it from the comfort of a Viennese Kaffeehaus with a Linzertorte and a dark restorative brew. And sure ‘twould be rude not to. There is enough Schubert that bewails the cruelty of nature, so we must be forgiven for wallowing in the idyll when we can. Not that there was anything sentimental about the performance, but nor did it seek to make anything of the work that it is not. What it did from the start was reveal the beauty to the fullest and communicate the joy, with sweet violin tone, agile light-footed runs, fabulous piano phrasing and lovely ‘answering’ between the players. The chamber music visuals contributed also, with body language like eye contact, postural echo and micro-gestures. The Andante’s leisurely charm was allowed to sing its message of easy unforced fellowship. The gleeful Scherzo’s playful romp (with more than a hint of stomp from the bass) was an undanceably fast Ländler, contrasting with its quite danceable Trio, in tempo but not the ever-present good-humoured sense of fun. The Andantino’s theme and variations on the ‘Die Forelle’ lied gave everybody a chance for a variation and an ingenious countermelody. Quite a fuss over one wee fishy, but beautifully played nonetheless. The Allegro giusto finale overflows with melodic ideas and focuses more on the joy of chamber music playing then any cogent musical argument seeking to develop them. So they played it for the joy. The viola, in particular, had a ball playing sub-duos with violin and cello in turn, and joining rhythmically with the double-bass. It is in many ways a rather odd work, but always a delight to hear. The Crail audience awarded it a very enthusiastic ovation, and it earns my stamp of approval in equal measure.
Link: https://eastneukfestival.com/events/trout-quintet/