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Mozart's Complete Piano Trios Done Beautifully

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 02/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mozart wrote six piano trios -- there is seventh that is somewhat spurious, K. 442, made up of unassociated harpsichord/violin/piano movements that Constanze Mozart had Maxilmilian Stadler finish and publish as a three movement piano trio after Mozart's death; it is not included here -- and all but the first are mature works. The first, K. 254 (from 1776, mistakenly attributed to 1782 in this issue's booklet), is based on the old Haydn model that is really more of a piano sonata with violin and cello obbligato. But the latter five are full-fledged piano trios with the strings having a more important participation than had been the case with earlier piano trios. For reasons that are not clear to me, these works rarely appear on concerts, or certainly not as often as Mozart's quartets, quintets, piano quartets or the masterful string trio (Divertimento, K. 563). And yet these last five piano trios are latish works and show lapidary craftsmanship and inspired melodism.



The Gryphon Trio, a group from Toronto that has been together since the early 1990s, is a sterling group. They are up against pretty stiff competition -- all the trios were recorded by the Beaux Arts Trio and the Borodin Trio in the 1990s and those sets are still available -- and they meet the competition with stylish playing, clean execution, subtle musicianship all captured in life-like sound. They are definitely competitive with their senior colleagues. The trio is made up of violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker. (Strangely, Patipatanakoon's name appears nowhere in the CD's booklet; I had to get it from the Gryphon's website.)



My only minor quibble -- and it really IS minor -- with this recording is that the cello's sound is very slightly recessed. This makes little difference in the earliest trio but is a bit disappointing in the later ones. If one compares this with either of the other trio sets one hears the difference. It is true that the cello strand is the least important voice in the trios as it is so often in unison with the piano bass line, but it does seem a bit of a shame that Borys's voice should be so reticent. I do think it is the engineering and not the playing that is at fault. Where this set overtakes the earlier sets is the clarity of the recorded sound. Very lifelike sonics.



Scott Morrison"