Project Description
Mozart: Complete Piano Trios
The slow movements in particular are performed with much warmth and affection, and the recorded sound is admirably lifelike.
Buy this Recording
No digital booklet included.
2007 JUNO NOMINATION
— Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber
In this recording, the Gryphon Trio presents Mozart‘s complete oeuvre—all six works—for piano trio.
The genre first emerged in the second half of the 18th century, with the rise in popularity of a new instrument: the “pianoforte.” As the name implied, this keyboard instrument had the ability to play a range of dynamics—something the harpsichord lacked—and shiny new pianofortes soon replaced old harpsichords in salons everywhere. There consequently arose a pressing demand for music that, while remaining accessible to amateurs, would show off the new instrument’s capabilities; and not just solo works, but chamber music too, so that family and friends could participate in the music making. Thus was born the trio for piano, violin and cello, a combination for which Joseph Haydn composed no fewer than 45 works. By comparison, Mozart’s half-dozen would at first glance seem a rather meagre output, but in terms of quality, this more humble corpus marks a fairly significant step in the genre’s evolution.
© Guy Marchand
Translation: Peter Christensen
And with this traditional pastoral metre, often used at Christmas to portray shepherds and angels singing, Amadeus, the “beloved of God,” took his leave of the genre. His stay was brief, but he did not fail to leave his divine, angelic mark.