Shostakovich – Prokofiev: The Sonatas for Cello & Piano at Pallas on June 4

The Sonata for Cello and Piano is a relatively early work, composed in 1934, when Shostakovich was 28 years old, shortly after his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”. It was premiered on December 25 of the same year by his friend and dedicatee of the work Viktor Kubatsky, principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theatre, with Shostakovich himself at the piano. The Sonata is full of Shostakovich’s satirical and humorous whims, – which much annoyed the Soviet censors. – These are in a way “hidden” in plain sight within the disciplined form. An advocate of free artistic expression, Shostakovich’s music would come to be banned twice in later years for not adhering to the “proletarian” style; that is, purely Russian music, devoid of any western influence, the sole purpose of which is to lift the spirits of the working proletariat.

The Sonata was composed in 1949 and premiered in 1950 by two foremost musicians of the time, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Sviatoslav Richter, who had already given the premiere of Prokofiev’s Seventh Piano Sonata. Sviatoslav Richter wrote: “After the 5th Symphony, the final stage in Prokofiev’s life began. It was noticeable in his music. He rose to new heights, perhaps the greatest heights of all. But it remained the final stage… The “Cello Sonata in C Major” is a wonderfully inventive and effusive song of twilight. A soaring, lyrically sophisticated tribute to the power of creative inspiration of a genius!”