With the success of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Shostakovich suddenly found himself ranked among the foremost of Soviet composers. Its premiere in 1934 was an instant success and praised by audiences and officials alike. However, the opera would soon become a source of problems, both personally and professionally, for the composer. Reveling in its success, Shostakovich became infatuated with a young student he had met at a festival in Leningrad featuring Lady Macbeth. The affair led to an upheaval of his personal life and a divorce from his wife, Nina, in 1935. During their separation, Shostakovich composed his solo sonata for the cello. The sonata was premiered on December 25 in Moscow with the composer himself at the piano and Viktor Kubatsky, also the work’s dedicatee, as soloist. Purportedly, Shostakovich first read of Stalin’s attack against his music on the way to the premiere. The Cello Sonata would ultimately evade any official denunciation, but other works, such as Lady Macbeth, faced the wrath of Stalin’s propaganda machine and others still were later withdrawn.
Cast in four movements, the Cello Sonata has much in common with Shostakovich’s symphonic works and is full of his typical sarcasm and wit. The Allegro non troppo opening movement, at first a quite conventional sonata form with two regular lyrical themes, suddenly abandons all formal considerations with its unusual recapitulation and mysterious close. The following Scherzo movement, marked Allegro, rather snubs its nose at those that would make demands of the composer’s music and attempt to control his artistic will. In contrast, the Largo third movement presents a rhapsodic, lyrical theme, and is a foreshadowing of the tone that would dominate many of the composer’s later works. Lastly, the Finale adopts a playful and energetic mood, but ends quite abruptly defying any expectations of a showcase ending.Joseph DuBose
Sonata for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 40 Dmitry Shostakovich
Shostakovich wrote his first and only sonata for cello over the course of a month in 1934, as a result of his collaboration with his friend, the cellist Wiktor Kubazki. This was a particularly creative period in the composer's artist life, just prior to the censure of his music by Soviet authorities-notably the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, which was deemed too bourgeois and decadent for the Soviet people. It was also a period of emotional turmoil for the composer, as he had fallen in love with a young student at a Leningrad festival featuring his Lady Macbeth. Their affair resulted in a brief divorce from his wife Nina.
The sonata form first movement contrasts a broad first theme in cello, accompanied by flowing piano arpeggios, developed by the piano towards an intense climax. As tension abates, a ray of light appears with the tender second theme, announced by the piano and imitated by the cello. In the development a spiky rhythmic motif penetrates through the flowing textures of the first theme, but soon the gentler second theme reappears. The movement ends with a dramatic twist: cosmic chaos where all moves in slow motion, with staccato chords in the piano and sustained notes in the cello.
The second movement has perpetual motion energy, with thrusting repeated ostinato pattern paired with a delicate first theme presented by the piano in widely spaced octaves. The cello's more light-hearted theme is later imitated in the piano's brittle high register. Sudden lurches into unrelated keys, give way to a return to the initial driving ostinato, which leads to a sudden conclusion.
The bleak expanses of Russia are evoked in the soulful Largo movement, with the piano providing a dark backdrop for the cello's rhapsodic, vocal theme. The music eventually fades into the impressionistic twilight.
The sonata ends with a brief yet ebullient finale, a type of rondo in which the main playful theme appears three times, imitated by both instruments, interspersed by episodes of sparking scales. In the second thematic appearance, the piano is let loose in a cadenza of helter-skelter zest, veering into unexpected tonal directions. The theme returns, to round the movement off in decisive brilliance. Marina Hoover
Classical Music | Cello Music
Dmitry Shostakovich
Sonata for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 40 Play
Recorded on 12/20/2005, uploaded on 01/27/2009
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
With the success of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Shostakovich suddenly found himself ranked among the foremost of Soviet composers. Its premiere in 1934 was an instant success and praised by audiences and officials alike. However, the opera would soon become a source of problems, both personally and professionally, for the composer. Reveling in its success, Shostakovich became infatuated with a young student he had met at a festival in Leningrad featuring Lady Macbeth. The affair led to an upheaval of his personal life and a divorce from his wife, Nina, in 1935. During their separation, Shostakovich composed his solo sonata for the cello. The sonata was premiered on December 25 in Moscow with the composer himself at the piano and Viktor Kubatsky, also the work’s dedicatee, as soloist. Purportedly, Shostakovich first read of Stalin’s attack against his music on the way to the premiere. The Cello Sonata would ultimately evade any official denunciation, but other works, such as Lady Macbeth, faced the wrath of Stalin’s propaganda machine and others still were later withdrawn.
Cast in four movements, the Cello Sonata has much in common with Shostakovich’s symphonic works and is full of his typical sarcasm and wit. The Allegro non troppo opening movement, at first a quite conventional sonata form with two regular lyrical themes, suddenly abandons all formal considerations with its unusual recapitulation and mysterious close. The following Scherzo movement, marked Allegro, rather snubs its nose at those that would make demands of the composer’s music and attempt to control his artistic will. In contrast, the Largo third movement presents a rhapsodic, lyrical theme, and is a foreshadowing of the tone that would dominate many of the composer’s later works. Lastly, the Finale adopts a playful and energetic mood, but ends quite abruptly defying any expectations of a showcase ending. Joseph DuBose
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Sonata for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 40 Dmitry Shostakovich
Shostakovich wrote his first and only sonata for cello over the course of a month in 1934, as a result of his collaboration with his friend, the cellist Wiktor Kubazki. This was a particularly creative period in the composer's artist life, just prior to the censure of his music by Soviet authorities-notably the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, which was deemed too bourgeois and decadent for the Soviet people. It was also a period of emotional turmoil for the composer, as he had fallen in love with a young student at a Leningrad festival featuring his Lady Macbeth. Their affair resulted in a brief divorce from his wife Nina.
The sonata form first movement contrasts a broad first theme in cello, accompanied by flowing piano arpeggios, developed by the piano towards an intense climax. As tension abates, a ray of light appears with the tender second theme, announced by the piano and imitated by the cello. In the development a spiky rhythmic motif penetrates through the flowing textures of the first theme, but soon the gentler second theme reappears. The movement ends with a dramatic twist: cosmic chaos where all moves in slow motion, with staccato chords in the piano and sustained notes in the cello.
The second movement has perpetual motion energy, with thrusting repeated ostinato pattern paired with a delicate first theme presented by the piano in widely spaced octaves. The cello's more light-hearted theme is later imitated in the piano's brittle high register. Sudden lurches into unrelated keys, give way to a return to the initial driving ostinato, which leads to a sudden conclusion.
The bleak expanses of Russia are evoked in the soulful Largo movement, with the piano providing a dark backdrop for the cello's rhapsodic, vocal theme. The music eventually fades into the impressionistic twilight.
The sonata ends with a brief yet ebullient finale, a type of rondo in which the main playful theme appears three times, imitated by both instruments, interspersed by episodes of sparking scales. In the second thematic appearance, the piano is let loose in a cadenza of helter-skelter zest, veering into unexpected tonal directions. The theme returns, to round the movement off in decisive brilliance. Marina Hoover
More music by Dmitry Shostakovich
Prelude n. 1 (from five preludes without opus number)
Trio No. 1 in c minor, Op. 8
Adagio from The Limpid Stream, Op. 39
Prelude Op.34 no.5
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 99
Prelude n. 3 (from five preludes without opus number)
Sonata for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 40
Sonata for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 40
Piano Quintet in g minor, op. 57
String Quartet no. 1, op. 49
Performances by same musician(s)
Silent Woods, Op. 68, No. 5
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