Piano Trio no.2

Benjamin Godard’s Second Piano Trio, published by Durand in 1883, is dedicated to the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, who returned the compliment by inscribing his Old Norwegian Melody with Variations op.51 to his French colleague. This highly expressive work is characterised by a dramatic intensity mingled with vibrant lyricism that is typical of its composer’s style. The trio opens with a broad cantabile melody; its rhythmic flexibility and the wide intervals that sporadically break up the regularity of simple lines in conjunct motion recall the music of Schumann, an influence perceptible in many of Godard’s works. This phrase, initially stated on the cello, then taken up by violin, is accompanied by a spate of agitated semiquavers from the piano that is equally evocative of the German composer. The piano is assigned a second theme with chromatic outlines and coloured by lush harmonies, which is swiftly adopted by the cello followed by the violin. The Adagio too is tinged with chromatic inflections in its melodic line, but this is a luminous movement that grows overcast only for a few bars at the centre of the movement. The Vivace is an agile, playful scherzo, animated in particular by its staccato articulations and its whirling motif with triplet auxiliary notes that passes from one instrument to the other. The trio is rounded off by a finale in a vehement dotted rhythm with a stormy atmosphere, which in this case reminds us more readily of Brahms.