Shostakovich piano trio no. 2 program notes

For instance, take the Second Piano Trio. There the metronome marking of the scherzo is so fast as to render it virtually unperformable. Once, while I was studying this trio, I happened to be in Komarovo when Dmitri Dmitriyevich was also staying there. I plucked up the courage to ask him about the markings, not only the fast speed of the scherzo, but the very slow speed indicated for the third movement.

But you, as a musician, should just play as you feel the music and take no notice of those markings, take no notice. A quiet drumming figure in the piano leads us from this reverie into the finale Allegretto , which, like the scherzo, juxtaposes joy and sorrow in such a way as to intensify emotions in both directions.

The shell-shocked, or otherwise stunned, danse macabre unrolls propulsively, though contrasting passages of broad lyricism and a curious dollop of densely contrapuntal atonality cast it into relief along the way, recalling somewhat the structure of a rondo. When he died and his body was honored by the public which lined up to pay tribute in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the slow movement of the E minor Piano Trio was one of the works played to accompany the sad proceedings.

Over chugging strings, the piano eases in the second subject, also slightly inebriate but gradually melting into a horn-warmed modulation. A massive unison Shostakovich apparently skitting one of his own symphonic habits! Suddenly alone, the piano winds cadentially into a deliciously decorated first subject, before charging for the line with the orchestra hot on its heels.

Second Movement: Andante Simplicity is the key, and for the opening cloud-shrouded string theme the key is minor. Like the sun breaking through, an effect as magical as it is simple, the piano enters in the major.

This enchanting counter-melody, at first blossoming and warming the orchestra, itself gradually clouds over as the musing piano drifts into the shadowy first theme. The sun peeps out again, only to set in long, arpeggiated piano figurations, whose tips evolve the merest wisps of rhythm.

Finale: Allegro. The finale breaks the grief with a compelling musical narrative featuring a march, piquant folk dancing and a poignant, weeping recall of fugal subject from the first movement as the music becomes a literal manifestation of elegiac recall, a rushing memory of what has past and gone. Composer and critic Arthur Cohn notes in his typically terse but sharply perceptive style that here Shostakovich pictures "the horrible forced dance of Jews before they were machine-gunned to death.

All rights reserved. Radice Chamber Music. Berger Chamber Music. Smallman ABC Chamber earsense supplement. Dmitri Shostakovich Nationality : Russian Soviet. Born : September 25, , St. Petersburg Died : August 9, , Moscow age Piano Trio No. Duration : 27 minutes approximately. Composed : age Premiere : November 14, Dedication : Ivan Sollertinsky.