GRYPHON TRIO
Tango Nuevo Gryphon Trio ? The tango: a lascivious dance born in the bordellos of Buenos Aires. Or so goes the legend. ? The tango?s musical sources were as varied as its creators: a blend of Italian Mediterranean culture, Spanish flamenco and the Cuban habanera. Even its flagship instrument, the accordion-like bandoneón?invented in Germany as a portable organ for church services? was an unlikely protagonist. ? The burden to stop the ?tango from becoming a relic of the past? fell on the shoulders of Astor Piazzolla .Born in Mar del Plata to parents of Italian descent, Piazzolla?s family moved to New York City when he was just four. By eight he was playing the bandoneón. As a teenager, he returned to Argentina and within a few years landed a position in Aníbal Troilo?s famous tango orchestra. ? Soon bored by a genre that he felt had reached an impasse, in his spare time he cultivated his long-held interest in classical music by composing a substantial body of ?serious? music. In 1954, anticipating a career in classical music, he went to France to study with the world?s most famous composition pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger. The encounter changed his life?and the history of the tango?forever. Boulanger considered Piazzolla?s music to be well-crafted and noted its debt to Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartók. But she thought it lacked spirit. When she learned that Piazzolla composed and arranged tangos for a living (he was ashamed of this), she asked him to play one. He reluctantly obliged. Boulanger then took his hands in hers and said: ?Astor, this is beautiful. Here is the true Piazzolla?do not ever leave him.? ? Ginastera?s two songs for voice and piano, Op. 3 (1938) include the widely transcribed Milonga whose sighing, plaintive melody unexpectedly turns cheerful. ? In his own way, Juno award-winning Cuban-Canadian composer and pianist Hilario Durán (1953- ) has revisited old forms from his native land. His fantasy-like Contradanza is based on the eighteenth-century Cuban collective dance of the same name whose ancestor was the populist English country dance. ? Now in their 16th year, the Gryphon Trio continues to delight audiences around the globe. Their celebrated recordings include works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo, and Shostakovich. With a strong commitment to expanding the piano trio repertoire, the Trio has commissioned and premiered over 50 works. ? Their 2004 recording, Canadian Premieres, features the work of leading Canadian composers and was awarded a Juno. Their recording, Tango Nuevo, will represent their tenth CD for the Analekta label. 1 ANL CD 29857 (AS) 18.98
