On Wednesday night the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center hosted the local premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Quintet for strings and piano, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, one of the co-commissioners of this new work. It has the same instrumentation as Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, violin, viola, 'cello, double bass, and piano, and was played by the Joseph Kalichstein, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson piano trio, joined by violist Michael Tree and Philadelphia Orchestra principal bassist, Harold Robinson.

This three-movement work features a blues-inspired middle movement, the "moody trout," a rough translation of a phrase in Schubert's song, Die Forelle (The Trout,) on which the older composer's quintet is based. Kalichstein introduced the premiere, referring to the kaleidoscopic first movement, which seems to rotate various thematic materials, the bluesy second movement, and the jazz-oriented finale, which also relies heavily on a blues scale. Zwilich's writing was clear, vital, and inspiring to the musicians who gave an intense, committed performance. Kalichstein also described the work as "all about the bass," and while each instrument had plenty of telling material, Robinson's bass and his strong, masterful persona were a highlight. There was plenty of characteristic pizzicato, but also bowed passages in which the bass was an equal partner in drama and melodic sweep, the writing in a style reminiscent of Samuel Barber. One wild passage in the finale featured loud reports from the bass and also the 'cello, instructed to pluck the string with so much force as to make it snap against the fingerboard.

This writer's favorite moments occurred in the slow movement when the bluesy moodiness gave way to an ethereal pianissimo, floating chords supporting a dolce violin line, briefly developed. There is a lot of musical pushing and pulling in the new Zwilich quintet, and so this was a rare passage when tension was removed while a magical sonority held sway. Was this the moment when we had been promised a quotation from Schubert's Die Forelle? I couldn't be sure though I did think of America the Beautiful a little later on- that familiar tune does bear a resemblance to Schubert's Trout.

The new quintet closed the first half while Schubert's quintet comprised the second half. Opening the concert was Beethoven's opus 11 trio, a masterpiece of gem-like compositional craftsmanship, most often heard with clarinet instead of violin. The musicians brought an abundance of expressive subtlety to this familiar work, treating the audience to the unfettered lyricism and joy of a youthful Beethoven. Kalichstein brought enormous color and dash to the music, Laredo sang with his typical lovely and affecting sound, while  the heft and projection of Robinson's 'cello was never lost beneath the weight of the piano. Bravi tutti!

-Chuck Holdeman