Sometime ago, Squirrel posted two fine recordings by the aptly named Festival Quartet on his excellent blog Squirrel's Nest . In the spirit of those posts, I offer the ensemble in Schubert's masterpiece, The Trout Quintet.
Squirrel has added a fair amount of biography of the Festival Quartet so there is no need for me to elaborate further. They were an outstanding group of musicians, making music during a golden age of chamber ensembles. This particular Trout is quite beautifully prepared and presented and it is a pity that BMG has not seen necessary the need to release this, or other recordings by the group onto cd. Though my lp is mono, this Trout was released in stereo too as to the recordings of Faure and Brahms that Squirrel has offered. Often I wonder who makes these decisions....
