About

The farewell to the Old Year with Forellenquintett has long been a beautiful tradition of the Vilnius String Quartet and its friends. Schubert wrote this opus in 1819 at the age of 22, but it was not published during his lifetime and did not appear until a year after his death in 1829. Today, the quintet is considered one of the most important masterpieces of chamber music.

The line-up of the quintet seemed somewhat unusual at the time – instead of the traditional combination of piano and string quartet, the composer involved a double bass in place of a second violin. Forellenquintett (Trout Quintet) was commissioned by Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy patron and amateur cellist, who suggested that Schubert incorporate the previously composed and well-known song Forelle (The Trout).

On the last evening of 2025, the Vilnius String Quartet performs this work at the Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History with pianist Guoda Gedvilaite and double bassist Donatas Bagurskas. Alongside Forellenquintett (Trout Quintet), the New Year’s Eve programme will feature Joseph Haydn’s spirited and festive String quartet in C major, Hob. III:77 (Kaiser, Emperor) from the so-called Six Erdődy Quartets, Op. 76, as they were dedicated to the Hungarian Count Joseph Georg von Erdődy. These are Haydn’s spectacular quartets, where he departs from the usual forms, and composes opuses full of invention and unexpected effects. The quartet is called the Kaiser (Emperor), because the second movement is a set of variations on Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser (God Save Emperor Francis), an anthem Haydn wrote for Emperor Francis II, which later became the national anthem of Austria-Hungary. The same melody is known to modern listeners as the German national anthem.