Benjamin Godard was not only a prolific composer and excellent writer of mélodies, but also a skilled and capable violinist and virtuoso pianist. However, he has left virtually no trace in the history of music, if not with the Berceuse, taken from his opera Jocelyn (1888), a tenor aria that has been rearranged and transcribed so many times that its origins have been virtually forgotten. Yet until the 1970s this piece was as famous as the Méditation from Massenet’s Thaïs or Saint-Saëns’ Le Cygne. If Godard is today little known, it is because he belongs to that school of Romanticism that was neither pioneering (one thinks here of Méhul and Cherubini around 1790) nor revolutionary (Debussy, Fauré and Ravel from 1890 on). A composer perfectly in step with his times, passionate about instrumental music and operas built around noble or historical themes (Le Tasse, Dante, Les Guelfes...), Godard favoured the heartfelt gesture over the reasoning of the mind. From that point of view, his music is immediately accessible and attractive for anyone now endeavouring to rediscover the elegant spirit of the Third Republic. This style, with its tact and moderation, is precisely what the Palazzetto Bru Zane will be highlighting in spring 2016. In Venice it is presenting an overview of Godard’s work (mélodies, quartets, trios, sonatas, piano music), supplemented by revivals in the orchestral field (the Symphony No 2 in B flat major), operatic (Dante in Munich and Paris), as well as the new complete recordings (music for violin and piano) and anthologies (mélodies and music for solo piano).