Grechaninov composed the Piano Trio No 2 in G major, Op 128 in Paris in 1930. As can be seen, this is a much shorter work than its predecessor, yet it carries the modal uncertainty of the Cello Sonata further. The first subject, which begins at once, is basically in G major, but ends in the minor; the second subject actually begins in G major before moving to D major (the ‘traditional’ second-subject key), but as the music progresses it is G minor which exerts a strong influence. The second movement Intermezzo is in E flat major, but Grechaninov it seems cannot resist the pull of G minor from the first movement—which comes to infect the more rhythmic central section. The finale is less obviously in sonata form, for there is no second subject as such, more a secondary group of fragments. The movement is in attractive compound time, as a moto perpetuo, but the G major opening is—as, by now, we might expect—soon deserted for developmental treatment on the flat side of the home key, returning intermittently to G major wherein the work ends in breathless excitement.
from notes by Robert Matthew-Walker © 2002
