Piano Trio No. 1 in C Minor

This very early work was written by the 16-year-old Shostakovich in the summer of 1923, when he was in love for the first time. Recovering from tuberculosis, Shostakovich was staying at a sanatorium in Crimea when he met Tatyana Glivenko. The daughter of a distinguished philology professor, she was just two weeks younger than himself. The attraction was mutual. Shostakovich’s widowed mother did what she could to discourage the liaison, yet Shostakovich and Tatyana maintained their relationship through six years of correspondence which only ended when Tatyana married another man and had her first child. Inspired by his new love, Shostakovich wrote his first piano trio, dedicating it to Tatyana. Perhaps feeling the urgency of completing such a work to demonstrate his feelings, Shostakovich recycled themes from at least two earlier works (he confessed to Tatyana one of these—a theme from a piano sonata written about three years prior): nonetheless, the result is ardently expressive, starting with sighs from cello followed by violin (the piano largely playing an accompanying role), eventually followed by sweet, long-breathed phrases accompanied by a chiming piano part. There are playful episodes, too, suggesting the mutual pleasure they found in their relationship.