The Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 is the revelatory penultimate work of Gabriel Fauré.
Fauré composed it amid declining health, shortly after his 1920 retirement as director of the Paris Conservatory. Completely deaf and nearly blind, the composer wrote in a poignant letter to his son, “and so one says goodbye, little by little.”
The Piano Trio is a musical goodbye. Filled with tender nostalgia and childlike innocence, it inhabits a dreamy, magical world beyond earthly pain. It reveals something so startlingly new that, following the first public performance on May 12, 1923 for the Société Nationale de Musique (presented in honor of the composer’s 78th birthday), a reviewer wondered, “…where indeed will he go, if he should become a hundred years old?”
From the beginning of the first movement (Allegro ma non troppo) there is a sense of continuous development and flow. The contours of sonata form melt into a dreamscape of motifs that become melody. In the opening bars, the cello introduces an expansive melody over the piano’s rippling accompaniment. Soon, the violin enters the conversation with the same melody. Some listeners hear the gentle rocking of the Venetian barcarolle. At moments, the cello and violin join in gentle, intimate unison.
The second movement (Andantino) is sensuous and elegiac. The dramatic heart of the Trio, this movement was composed first. Beginning as a simple and beautiful song, the music grows in passion and longing. Ultimately, it drifts into serene repose.
The final movement (Allegro vivo) is a dazzling tour de force. A spirited melody sung by the cello and violin is interrupted by the piano’s brilliant flourish. Kai Christiansen observes that
Fauré seems to interweave and ultimately superimpose two different conceptions of time in this movement, each with its own recurring theme. The strings throttle the momentum with a dramatic declamation in slow motion while the piano races forward with an almost frantic drive.
This performance, recorded in 2025 at the 44th Annual Rockport Chamber Music Festival, features Joshua Bell (violin), Steven Isserlis (cello), and Jeremy Denk (piano):
Featured Image: “Ploumanach, La Falaise”(1908), Henri Le Fauconnier
Great to see you drawing attention to Faure’s wonderful trio. Many musical works have a valedictory air; Fauré’s work is unusual in the way it seems to yearn for the past, even as it bids it goodbye. And the performance at Rockport’s beautiful music center does full justice to the score.
I’ll share this on social media.
Frank Beck