Gryphon

The Toronto-based Gryphon Trio is a chamber group of international renown that has scored numerous critical successes for performances in both the standard repertory (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorák) and in lesser-known fare, especially works by contemporary Canadian composers. The three players of the ensemble are Annalee Patipatanakoon on violin, Roman Borys on cello, and Jamie Parker on piano.

Canada's foremost piano trio, the Gryphon Trio, has a reputation for offering richly detailed performances and excellent ensemble work. This nine-disc set represents not only much of their best work, but also much of the best of the piano trio repertoire. There are six of Mozart's trios; all of Schubert's and Shostakovich's works in the genre; and highlights of Beethoven's, including the three Op. 1 trios, the Archduke and the Ghost trios, and the Op. 11 trio originally for clarinet, cello, and piano.

In the course of their career, the Gryphon Trio has firmly established itself as one of the world's preeminent piano trios.The Los Angeles Times wrote This is a piano trio that plays with strength and unanimity… big, bold, almost orchestral performances. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the trio offers one of their career's best recordings, the mesmerizing album The End of Flowers, which features works by the great composers Rebecca Clarke and Maurice Ravel, written at a time when World War I was on everyone's mind.

It's not easy in this eclectic age to juxtapose musical items that have never been in proximity before, but Canada's Gryphon Trio and soprano Patricia O'Callaghan manage to do so on this recording, which proclaims itself unlike any previous chamber music album. Even better than that, it's pretty much unlike any previous crossover album, although it has ancestors in the world of classical cabaret music where O'Callaghan has spent some of her time.