The Gryphon Trio premieres Canadian composer Gary Kulesha’s (Order of Canada 2023) new work, Concerto for Piano Trio and Strings. This novel take on the concerto genre sees the more typical solo instrument replaced instead by a trio of instruments, suggesting a dialogue with the Baroque Concerto Grosso genre. Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète, sometimes shortened to just Apollo, is the music for a ballet in which the Greek god Apollo teaches the Muses their arts. The music adopts a neo-classical and neo-Baroque style, mimicking at various points the French overture, arias, and the theme and variation genre. Motivically, the music begins with a sixteenth–dotted eighth–sixteenth rhythm that Stravinsky develops in increasingly elaborate and virtuosic ways over the course of the piece.

Kristian Alexander | conductor
Gryphon Trio
James Parker | piano
Annalee Patipatanakoon | violin
Roman Borys | cello
Daniel Vnukowski | host

Intermission discussion and Q&A with Gary Kulesha and Daniel Vnukowski.