Gryphon Trio: Messiaen Quartet with James Campbell, Clarinet | House Program | April 10, 2024

CLASSICAL / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT CONCERT
GRYPHON TRIO
with James Campbell, clarinet
APRIL 10 AT 7:30 PM
CLASSICAL / ARTIST SPOTLIGHT CONCERT
GRYPHON TRIO
with James Campbell, clarinet
APRIL 10 AT 7:30 PM
THIS PERFORMANCE IS SUPPORTED BY
THE SHELAGH AND DAVID WILLIAMS
MUSIC PROGRAMMING FUND

GRYPHON TRIO
with James Campbell, clarinet
MESSIAEN:
QUARTET FOR
THE END OF TIME
James Campbell, clarinet
Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin
Roman Borys, cello
Jamie Parker, piano
PROGRAM
BEETHOVEN
BERNSTEIN
Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11, for clarinet, cello and piano
Allegro con brio
Adagio
Tema con variazioni — Allegretto
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Grazioso
Andantino — Vivace e leggiero
INTERMISSION
MESSIAEN
Quartet for the End of Time
1. Crystal liturgy [quartet]
2. Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time [quartet]
3. Abyss of birds [solo clarinet]
4. Interlude [trio without piano]
5. Praise to the eternity of Jesus [cello and piano]
6. Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets [quartet in unison]
7. Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time [quartet]
8. Praise to the immortality of Jesus [violin and piano]

ABOUT TONIGHT’S PERFORMANCE
The Opus 11 Trio by Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827) is scored with a clarinet replacing
the violin, imbuing the work with a more lyrical
and lighter character than the three Piano Trios
of Beethoven’s Opus 1. This lyrical quality is
particularly noticeable in the last movement’s
set of nine variations on a song from an opera
buffa by Joseph Weigl. You will know when the
final variation arrives, as the piano presents this
earworm-like theme in loud canonic octaves
between the two hands, with this passage then
echoed in the clarinet and cello. Rather humorously
at this point, the piano gets stuck on a trill before
sliding unexpectedly to G major. The quick return
to B-flat major arrives with a syncopated 6/8
meter reworking of the theme that dances to
the double bar line.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) had an impressive
career as both a composer and a conductor, being
equally successful at writing concert music and
Broadway musicals and leading the New York
Philharmonic from 1958-72. His only Clarinet Sonata
was written at the age of twenty-four, just a year
after the première of Messiaen’s Quartet for the
End of Time. The Sonata’s compact two-movement
design displays many of the characteristics of
Bernstein’s compositional voice, with the first
movement having a somewhat serious neoclassical
quality, while the syncopated meters of the second
movement’s Vivace produce a jazz-like energy
and sparkle. The brief slow introduction to
the second movement is reintroduced in the
middle of the Vivace with a more florid and
expressive treatment.
French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
is recognized as one of the 20th century’s major
composers, creating a distinctive style that
embraces novel approaches to rhythm, pitch,
harmony and birdsong, all of which can be heard
in his seminal work, Quartet for the End of Time.
A proficient organist, Messiaen’s large body
of music for that instrument often draws upon
biblical influences. In a similar fashion, the Book of
Revelation’s description of the Apocalypse became
the springboard for the very descriptive movement
titles of the Quartet for the End of Time. Given the
work’s rather complex treatment of musical ideas
and texture, perhaps the best preparation for an
audience member unfamiliar with the piece, is to
simply summarize the historical background behind
the work’s genesis and premiere. At the start of
World War II, while serving in the medical service
of the French Army, Messiaen was captured by the
Germans and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp.
Meeting a violinist and cellist, he started working
on a piano trio which eventually became this
quartet, which helps explain why only four of the
eight movements are scored for the full ensemble.
Knowing that this work was first performed in
January 1941 to an audience of prisoners and
prison guards, with the composer playing a
poorly maintained upright piano and the other
performers using similarly salvaged instruments,
is to appreciate the profound spirituality of the
music and to recognize the human need to create
art and something of lasting beauty even under
circumstances of confinement and duress.
©2024 by John Burge for the Isabel
ABOUT THE GRYPHON TRIO
The Gryphon Trio is firmly established as one of
the world’s preeminent piano trios. For more than
25 years, it has earned acclaim for and impressed
international audiences with its highly refined,
dynamic, and memorable performances. The Trio’s
repertoire ranges from traditional to contemporary,
and from European classicism to modern-day
multimedia. It is committed to redefining chamber
music for the 21st century.
Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman
Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker are creative
innovators with an appetite for discovery and
new ideas. They have commissioned over 85 new
works, and they frequently collaborate with other
artists on projects that push the boundaries of
Classical music.
The Trio tours regularly throughout North America
and Europe. It enjoys longstanding relationships
with prominent festivals and arts incubators like
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Orford Music
Academy, Music Toronto, Ottawa Chamberfest,
and Festival del Lago International Academy of
Music in Ajijic, Mexico. Gryphon Trio often performs
triple concerti with the world’s major symphony
orchestras and smaller chamber orchestras.
The Gryphon Trio’s prolific recording catalogue
includes 22 releases on Analekta, Naxos, and other

labels; it is an encyclopaedia of works for the genre.
Honours include 11 nominations and three Juno
Awards for Classical Album of the Year in 2004,
2011, and most recently in 2019. In 2013, Canada
Council for the Arts presented Gryphon Trio with
the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence
in the Performing Arts.
The Gryphons are deeply committed to community
engagement, education, and the development
of next-generation audiences and performers.
They conduct masterclasses and workshops
at universities and conservatories. They are
ensemble-in-residence at the Isabel Bader Centre
for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, and
artists-in-residence at Trinity College, University
of Toronto. Since 2010, the Trio’s ground-breaking
outreach program, Listen Up!, has inspired 16
Canadian communities to collaborate on large-scale
multifaceted arts creation projects. The Trio leads
Orford Music Academy’s Piano Trio Workshop and
directs the Classical Music Summer Programs at
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
From 2007 to 2020, Roman Borys was Artistic
Director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society;
Annalee Patipatanakoon and Jamie Parker served
as OCMS’ Artistic Advisors. Mr. Parker is the
Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance
at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Ms.
Patipatanakoon is Associate Professor of Violin
and Performance Area Chair of Strings.
ABOUT JAMES
CAMPBELL, CLARINET
James Campbell has
followed his muse to five
television specials, more
than 40 recordings, over
30 works commissioned, a
Juno Award (Stolen Gems),
a Roy Thomson Hall Award, Canada’s Artist of
the Year, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and
Canada’s highest honor, the Order of Canada.
Called by the Toronto Star “Canada’s pre-eminent
clarinetist and wind soloist,” James Campbell has
performed solo and chamber music concerts in 30
countries in many of the worlds great concert halls:
London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls,
Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory
Hall, Paris’s Theatre Champs-Elysees, Washington’s
Kennedy Centre and Symphony Hall, Boston. He
has been soloist with over 60 orchestras, including
the Boston Pops, the London Symphony, the
London Philharmonic, the Russian Philharmonic,
and the Montreal Symphony, and has performed
Copland’s Clarinet Concerto four times with Aaron
Copland conducting. He has appeared with over
30 string quartets, including the Amadeus (when
he replaced an ailing Benny Goodman on a tour of
California), Guarneri, Vermeer, New Zealand, Fine
Arts, Allegri and St Lawrence Quartets.
Of Campbell’s extensive discography many
recordings have won international acclaim. His
recording of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with
the Allegri Quartet was voted “Top Choice” by
BBC Radio 3 and the London Times, and “Stolen
Gems,” a recording of lighter classics, won a Juno
Award (Canada’s Grammy). James has recorded
the world premiere recording of Brahms Sonata
Op. 120 No. 1, orchestrated by Luciano Berio,
and Weber Concerto No. 1, with the London
Symphony, Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsody with
the Philharmonia, Saint-Saëns Tarantella with the
London Philharmonic, and Mozart and Copland
Concertos with the NACO. Sony Classical has
recently re-released his recording of the Debussy
Premier Rhapsody with Glenn Gould.
Since 1985, James Campbell has been Artistic
Director of the Festival of the Sound, the annual
summer Canadian chamber music festival, and has
programmed over 1300 concerts for the festival.
Under his direction the Festival has traveled
to England, Japan, and the Netherlands and it
has been the subject of documentaries by BBC
Television, CBC Television and TV Ontario.
Campbell is the subject of numerous features
and cover stories in Clarinet Magazine (USA),
Clarinet and Sax (UK), Piper Magazine (Japan),
Gramophone, and in the book Clarinet Virtuosi
of Today, by British author and clarinet authority
Pamela Weston.
James continues to explore and expand musically,
his most recent collaboration being Spirit ‘20,
created at Festival of the Sound in, 2010. The
six-member ensemble explores the music of the
roaring 20’s in new and innovative ways.
James Campbell has been Professor of Music at
the prestigious Jacobs School of Music, Indiana
University since 1988.