65 th Season
CHAMBER MUSIC HOUSTON PRESENTS
The Gryphon Trio
Annalee Patipatanakoon violin
Roman Borys cello | Jamie Parker piano
James Campbell* clarinet
*CMH DEBUT
TUESDAY 21 JANUARY 2025
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in B-flat, op.97 (“Archduke”)
1) Allegro moderato
2) Scherzo: Allegro
3) Andante cantabile, ma però con moto
4) Allegro moderato—Presto
INTERMISSION
MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps
1) Liturgie de cristal
2) Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du temps
3) Abîme des oiseaux
4) Intermède
5) Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus
6) Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes
7) Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du temps
8) Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus
No photography or audio or video recording is allowed during the performance. Please silence and dim phones and other devices.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Piano Trio in B-flat, op.97 (“Archduke”) (1811)
Beethoven‘s seventh trio was dedicated to Archduke Rudolph of Austria, youngest of twelve children of Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolf became his devoted pupil at the age of 15, later becoming his patron and supporter as well. The Trio was written in 1811, the same year as the beautiful piano sonata, Les Adieux, composed also for Rudolph, as he was forced to flee Napoleon’s invasion of Vienna. It was given a public performance in 1811, with Beethoven at the piano, the last public concert he would give as his deteriorating hearing and an out-of-tune piano made it a disaster, as described by Louis Spohr who was in the audience.
Beethoven’s music needs no explanation; no matter how exceptional or surprising, it strikes us as inevitable, every note no matter how peculiar, exactly where it had to be. This last of his piano trios is a demonstration of that since it is filled with unconventional features—of length, of character, and of tonal relationships, which all fit like a key in its lock.
The Trio starts with a spacious, noble and unassuming theme, in full, rich chords played by a solo piano, soon to be joined by the strings. The cello is the first to play a few notes alone, signaling something new. In this work, the cello will play a lead role rather than the violin, introducing almost all the new themes and melodic ideas throughout the entire Trio, giving the work a distinctive quality of warmth. Soon we realize Beethoven also skews the usual harmonic relation of musical phrases from tonic-dominant to tonic-subdominant. This more relaxed relationship is actually apparent in the very opening theme and will hold for many passages in all four movements. Then there are startling moments, for example in the twentieth measure Beethoven interjects an A-flat in the violin line instead of a G, throwing the harmonic orientation off in an unexpected direction—yet done with such a sure touch that it almost goes unnoticed. After many wonderful adventures in this long movement, it is in the coda that the usual tonic-dominant relationship is firmly and repeatedly affirmed.
A solo cello solo starts the Scherzo with an amiable theme giving no clue as to the harmonic adventures to come when we arrive at the Trio, which will alternate twice with the Scherzo. This Trio section isn’t named as such in the score but its appearance is obvious; it is in five flats: a solo cello plays the gloomy, ambiguous, theme slithering up the chromatic scale, followed by the piano, then the violin, and we realize it is a macabre fugue! A brief new, more cheerful section is introduced in the key of E major but soon the five flats return. Ultimately the movement ends with, of all things, a coda elaborating the chromatic theme but now in the proper key of B-flat major and with a final nod to the Scherzo.
This uniquely peculiar movement is followed by the gorgeous Andante whose prayerful nobility and prominence of the cello can’t be missed. As in the first movement, it is the piano that introduces the theme with rich, ringing chords. There follows a set of five variations mostly in the same key. Only in the last variation is there harmonic movement which ends abruptly as the music leads directly into the last movement, the instruments having been dropped unceremoniously into the advertised key of B-flat major. But that is only for the moment; Beethoven proceeds to take the musicians on a trip around the tonal countryside. One can only wonder how he makes it sound so right!
This long work finishes with another lively coda, finally solidly in its key of B-flat major, thus ending a supreme gift for his royal and loyal friend and patron, Archduke Rudolph.
—Nora Avins Klein
Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and instructor of such famous names in composition as Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. He was born in 1908 in Avignon, and he joined the Paris Conservatoire at the tender age of 11. At the Paris Conservatoire, he had the opportunity to study with great figures in music like Paul Dukas, Charles-Marie Widor, and Marcel Dupré. His compositional style drew from a variety of international and natural influences, such as East Asian music and birdsong, some bird calls of which he wrote down by ear and incorporated into his musical works. His self-professed chromesthesia — the ability to associate chords with particular colors — was an important part of his composition process and his music is known for its rhythmic complexity, harmonic stasis, and intervallic melodic symmetry through a process he utilized known as “modes of limited transposition.” His Catholic faith also exerted a strong influence on his compositional output. Messiaen spent almost his entire life in France, dying in Clichy in 1992. For one notable period he was not in France: from 1940 to 1941 he was a prisoner-of-war in German Silesia. That experience was the impetus for Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time).
During World War II, Messiaen was a medical orderly in the French army when he was captured by the Germans in May 1940. In the composer’s own words: “When I first arrived at the camp…I was stripped of my clothes, like all the prisoners. But naked as I was, I clung fiercely to a little kit-bag containing all my treasures, that is to say, a little library of miniature scores which served as my consolation when I suffered, as did the Germans themselves, from hunger and cold.” He goes on to describe how “the Germans considered me to be completely harmless…and since they still loved music, not only did they allow me to keep my scores but an officer gave me pencils, erasers and some music paper.” He happened to be imprisoned alongside a violinist, a clarinetist, and a cellist, and it was with his music paper that he wrote his quartet for these musicians to play, including a part for piano that he played himself. The piece had its first performance in the camp on January 15, 1941, with Messiaen’s fellow prisoners and German officers in attendance.
The title of the work is a biblical reference to Revelation 10:1-7: “I saw a mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow round his head…he raised his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives for ever and ever, saying: There shall be no more time; but on the day the seventh angel sounds the trumpet, the hidden purpose of God will have been fulfilled.” Of the eight movements, four are for all four players (1, 2, 6, 7), while movement 3 is for clarinet alone, movement 4 all but the piano, movement 5 cello and piano, and movement 8 violin and piano. This organization makes it so that each performer plays in six movements.
The first movement “Liturgie de cristal” (Crystal Liturgy) features bird calls and a reflection on the eternity of time, while the second movement “Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps” (Vocalise for the Angel who announces the end of time) represents the angel from
the above-quoted passage in Revelation. The third movement “Abîme des oiseaux” (Abyss of the birds) presents in Messiaen’s words “the abyss of Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.”
The fourth movement “Intermède” (Interlude) is a Scherzo that prefaces the fifth movement “Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus” (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus). Both the fifth movement and the eighth and last movement “Louange à l’Immortalité de Jésus” (Praise to the Immortality of Jesus) are reflections on the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ. The sixth movement, “Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes” (Dance of Fury, for the seven trumpets) is, as the title indicates, a dance, signifying the angel’s sounding of the seventh trumpet on the day “the hidden purpose of God will have been fulfilled.” The seventh movement, “Fouillis d’arc-en-ciel, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du temps” (A jumble of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time) centers on the rainbow around the angel’s head, which Messiaen calls a “symbol of peace, wisdom, and all luminescent and sonorous vibration.”
Iain G. Matheson considers Messiaen’s circumstances as a prisoner of war as the direct catalyst for his choice of that particular passage from Revelation for his quartet, describing the French composer’s experience in the camp as one in which “time might indeed have seemed literally endless, and the Apocalypse close at hand” (The Messiaen Companion, 2009).
—Michael S. Richardson
The Gryphon Trio
“This is a piano trio that plays with strength and unanimity…big, bold, almost orchestral performances. The Gryphon brings bravura spirit to the piano trio.” —The Los Angeles Times
The endlessly inventive Gryphon Trio has impressed international audiences and the press for more than thirty years with its highly refined, dynamic performances, and is widely recognized as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios. With a repertoire that ranges from the traditional to the contemporary and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia, the Gryphon’s commitment to tradition and innovation produces engaging concert experiences that define chamber music for the 21st century.
The Gryphon Trio’s 22 celebrated recordings on the Analekta, Ondine, and Naxos labels are an encyclopedia of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo, Ravel, Clarke, Shostakovich, Piazzolla, as well as contemporary composers Valentin Silvestrov, Christos Hatzis, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Gary Kulesha, Brian Current, Alexina Louie, Chan Ka Nin, Jordan Pal, Andrew Staniland and James Wright. Their Broken Hearts and Madmen release with vocalist Patricia O’Callaghan features favorite songs by Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and Laurie Anderson alongside traditional melodies from Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. The Trio’s recordings have earned numerous accolades and awards including three Junos.
The ensemble-in-residence at Music Toronto for more than twenty five years, the Gryphon Trio tours each season extensively throughout North America and Europe. Recent performances include those for the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Northwestern University, the Eastman School of Music, Tippet Rise, and Williams College.
The Trio is also dedicated to pushing the boundaries of chamber music and has commissioned and premiered over one hundred new works from established and emerging composers around the world, and has collaborated on special projects with clarinetist James Campbell, actor Colin Fox, choreographer David Earle, vocal ensemble Nordic Voices, and a host of jazz luminaries at Lula Lounge, Toronto’s leading venue for jazz and world music. Their most ambitious undertaking to date is a ground-breaking multimedia, vocal and instrumental production of composer Christos Hatzis’s epic work Constantinople, which they have shared with audiences across North America and at the Royal Opera House in London. Their most recent multimedia production Echo – Memories of the World was created in collaboration with an international group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and features Indigenous singer Marion Newman, Indigenous actor čačumḥi Aaron Wells and the Gryphon Trio. Recounting experiences and stories from the lands now known as Canada, Norway, and Ukraine, Echo is a multimedia love letter to the richness of diverse cultural expressions, an emotionally charged exploration of history’s erasures, and a celebration of artists and knowledge keepers who defy suppression to breathe life into enduring works of profound significance.
The Trio is currently collaborating with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and visual artist Kevork Mourad to produce an evening’s length production that considers Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in a 21st century context.
In their 2024-25 season, highlights include performances for Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Houston, Carmel Music Society and the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University. They will also be presenting Echo – Memories of the World in Victoria and Vancouver British Columbia and Orcas Island in Washington State.
Deeply committed to the education of the next generations of audiences and performers alike, the Gryphon takes time out of their busy touring schedule to conduct master classes and workshops at universities and conservatories across North America. They are Artists-inResidence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music where Parker also serves as Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance and Annalee Patipatanakoon is Professor of Violin and Chamber music.
The Trio’s flagship educational program Listen Up!, was launched in 2010 and now includes year-long residencies, a video series, and teacher training sessions. Listen Up! residencies take place over the course of a full school year and give elementary school students a hands-on opportunity to express themselves through poetry and music composition, visual arts and choral performance. Each residency culminates with a joint performance by the Gryphon Trio with the school choir . The much-publicized project began in Ontario and has taken place in 18 communities across Canada.
The Gryphon Trio appears by arrangement with MKI Artists.
James Campbell
A Juno award winner and Order of Canada recipient, James Campbell has been called “Canada’s pre-eminent clarinetist and wind soloist’”by the Toronto Star, “a national treasure” by the CBC, and “one of the top half dozen clarinetists in the world today” by Fanfare Magazine.
Mr Campbell has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in more than 35 countries with over 65 orchestras, including the Boston Pops, London Symphony and Philharmonic, and every major orchestra in Canada. He has performed Copland's Clarinet Concerto four times with Aaron Copland conducting. He has also collaborated and recorded with Glenn Gould and toured with over 35 string quartets, including the Guarneri, Amadeus (when he replaced Benny Goodman on a tour of California) and Vermeer. Of his more than 50 recordings, the BBC and The Times rated his recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet as the best available. His recording Stolen Gems received a Juno Award for best classical album (solo or chamber ensemble) in 1986. The Canadian Music Council named him artist of the year in 1989. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in July, 1997. He awarded the Queen’s Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medal, an Honorary Doctor of Laws, and was inducted into the CBC’s Classical Music Hall of Fame.
Mr Campbell has been the Artistic Director of the Festival of the Sound, the annual summer Canadian chamber music festival, since 1985 and has programmed over 1500 concerts for the festival. Under his direction, the festival has travelled to England, Japan, and the Netherlands and been the subject of documentaries by BBC Television, CBC Television, and TV Ontario.
From 1988-2019, Mr Campbell was Professor of Music at the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. His former students now occupy positions in orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and St Louis Symphony; professorships in numerous conservatories worldwide; and Grammy-nominated performers.
Mr. Campbell is the subject of numerous features and cover stories in Clarinet Magazine, Clarinet and Sax (UK), Piper Magazine (Japan), and Gramophone (UK), and is featured in the book “Clarinet Virtuosi of Today” by British author and clarinet authority Pamela Weston. He lives in Canada and continues to give concerts and masterclasses worldwide.
