A group of Chamber Music Society musicians, including pianist and Co-Artistic Director Wu Han, are preparing for an upcoming tour with stops in 12 US cities, including New York. I spoke with Wu Han about the program, which features Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet alongside works by Mozart and W. F. Bach; our conversation is edited here.
How did you curate this program around Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet?
Wu Han: It’s not easy to build a program around the “Trout”; in this case we worked backwards. The “Trout” is written for a piano quartet plus double bass—an unusual instrumentation requested by Sylvester Paumgartner, a patron of the arts and amateur cellist who commissioned this piece. Keeping the full quintet in mind, we thought it would be fitting to explore the piano quartet genre, which was essentially invented by Mozart in the 1780s. He famously began what was supposed to be a set of piano quartets, the first of which, in G minor, was deemed too difficult and inaccessible by the publisher, who in turn voided the contract for the remainder. I personally love the E-flat quartet that he wrote following the G minor; there is something freeing about it, as if he approached it knowing he had lost his commission and had no one left to please. With the quintet and quartet in place, we decided to open with the Mozart arrangement of a fugue by W. F. Bach. We thought that hearing a fugue played by a string trio would be the best way for the audience to start training their ears to identify distinct voices. It serves as an intellectual exercise: dissecting different voices before entering into the piano quartet and quintet world. I’m very passionate about this program; Mozart and Schubert, in this particular program, just have that magic of whatever they touch turning to gold.
The unique instrumentation of the “Trout” allows the players to take on new roles and play in combinations they might not get to in more standard chamber genres. As a pianist, how does this change the rehearsal process and performance approach?
Playing the “Trout” is entirely different from performing Mozart’s piano quartets, which feel like small piano concertos. In the “Trout,” because the bass is there, a lot of the writing for the piano part is in the higher register. It’s bell-like and singing, with pearly scales. It’s not full of humongous chord progressions because the bass is taking care of all that. The “Trout” is also distinct in its form: it’s not like the Mozart quartet with a sonata-form first movement, profound slow movement, and conversational concerto-grosso-style approach. The “Trout” is five movements of glorious songs and dances. As a result, rhythm is very important and must be performed correctly to convey the joyous nature of the dances. If you do it right, the audience will confirm with a smile.
As someone well-versed in the rich legacy of Romantic piano quartets, how does revisiting an earlier example in the Mozart K. 493 inform your understanding of the genre’s evolution?
Mozart’s piano quartets are the foundation of the genre. They have the conversational intimacy of chamber music but also the dramatic flair of his piano concertos. When I play them, I approach them like concertos but with sensitivity to the balance: I don’t need to soar above an orchestra, I can just enjoy the conversation. As the genre evolved with composers like Schumann, Brahms, and Dvořák, the sonic landscape expanded. The piano itself changed, and the writing became denser and more complex. Even across works by the same composer, though, each piece requires its own approach. Rather than viewing quartets through an early-to-late period lens, I focus on each work’s unique context. Chamber music often reflects pivotal moments in a composer’s life (like Schumann’s so-called chamber music year in 1842), and understanding that background is an important part of my process.
How does hearing W. F. Bach’s fugue in Mozart’s string trio arrangement change our perception of the counterpoint?
Studying fugues is important for both musicians and listeners. Hearing a fugue played by three different instruments helps us hear how they interact with one another, how they support one another. It’s important not only to appreciate the parallel horizontal lines, but also to listen for how they combine vertically to create harmony. That’s like Chamber Music Listening 101—if you can do that in the fugue, it will help you understand the other works on the program.
Can you shed some light on the process of preparing a concert for a tour? What is it like to play the same music in different spaces?
To be able to take a program on tour is the biggest joy for any musician. Of course, it is a challenge to adjust to new halls. If the space is too wet, you need to play slower, if it’s too dry, you need to use more pedal. Each concert is also an opportunity to refine the interpretation. With musicians as talented as we have, we can try new things and pass each other musical curveballs in real time—that’s when you see us smiling on stage. I’m happy that this tour will end in Alice Tully Hall; we will bring home a mature, deliberate program to our beloved audience.
This program will be performed at Alice Tully Hall on March 28 and 30, following a tour that stops in 11 other locations throughout the United States. A complete list of dates and venues can be found here.
