Gryphon Trio’s anniversary show draws a packed house
What a potpourri: A concert said to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Gryphon Trio includes one piece performed by them, and a short set accompanying soprano Measha Brueggergosman in some Gershwin songs. In Erno Dohnanyi’s Serenade in C for String Trio, opus 10, pianist James Parker ceded his place to violist Martin Beaver, and for most of the second half of the program it was Brueggergosman and pianist Parker doing songs by Francis Poulenc.
It would be nice to hear the trio in a concert of its own, but apparently that’s not to be this year. However, the programmers must have done something right. Dominion-Chalmers was as full as I’ve ever seen it. There were about a thousand people there.
The program opened with the Dohnanyi, a charming piece, if not too imposing. Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys did a nice job with it, though there were moments when the blend was a little iffy.
(Anyone wishing to hear Martin Beaver playing the violin in his own program can do so at the National Gallery Saturday at 3 p.m.)
The next item was one of the staples of the piano trio repertoire, Ravel’s Trio in A minor. From the first measures you could hear the mastery the Gryphons bring to their core repertoire. The coloration was ravishing, especially in places like the last few minutes of the first movement where the violinist and cellist play in unison (or fifteenths more exactly) against dark sounds from the piano. The counterpoint in the slow movement was also striking.
Brueggergosman and Parker filled most of the second half of the program with five songs by Poulenc. I don’t recall having heard any of them before except on records.
Although Brueggergosman’s voice was as beautiful and assured as always, it didn’t strike me as quite appropriate to the repertoire. Or perhaps it was more that she couldn’t quite bring the right touch of insouciance that is the key to much of Poulenc’s musical language.
Four Gershwin songs from Porgy and Bess, accompanied by the Gryphon Trio, received more idiomatic renditions and brought the evening to a lovely conclusion.