Dmitri Shostakovich

Sonata for Cello and Piano op 40,D minor

I-Allegro ma non troppo



The Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40, was one of Dmitri
Shostakovich's early works, composed in 1934. Dmitri Shostakovichwas
barely 28 then. Yet it can hardly be called an early piece, since the
Russian composer completed his brilliant First Symphony as a 19-year-
old, and one of his most significant masterpieces, the opera Lady
Macbeth of Mtsensk District at the tender age of 26.
It was also a period of emotional turmoil in his life, 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, and
it was in August, during their period of separation, that he wrote the
cello sonata, completing it within a few weeks and giving its premiere in
Moscow on 25 December with his close friend, the cellist Viktor
Kubatsky, who was also the piece's dedicatee.






I-Allegro ma non troppo

The sonatina 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,
with unusual tonal shifts, 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.

There might be a connection between this movement of the Cello Sonata
and the years 1934-37. It was a period of dynamic change and of a quest
for a new language in the composers oeuvre. The date of his Sonata in
D minor (1934) coincides with the premiere of the above-mentioned
opera; its naturalism and radicalism caused some of Shostakovichs
greatest problems with Soviet authorities. Which takes us to an unusual
pianissimo "recapitulation" section where all moves in slow motion,
with staccato chords in the piano and sustained notes in the cello.
This short and agitated bass motif in the piano, appearing towards the
end of the exposition and dramatising the later course of the work,can be
associated with a door knock. The door knock of the authorities coming
after him.
Because it was such a tensioned period for Shostakivoch,his separation
from his soon-to-be his wife again,Nina,and the political situation under
Stalins dictatorship,we can feel in the 1
st
movement the slightly chaotic
atmosphere. Ending-with the door knock