Cello Sonata in D Minor

Shostakovich wrote his Cello Sonata between August and September 1934, during an emotionally turbulent moment in his personal life. Shostakovich had asked for a divorce from his wife Nina, after having fallen in love with another woman. Although the couple eventually resolved their differences, this episode may explain the work’s emotional directness and unabashed lyricism, which may seem out of step with the more satirical compositions he was writing at that time. The first movement, “Allegro moderato”, opens with a cello melody of an elegance and refinement reminiscent of Fauré. This is complemented by a theme, introduced by the piano, that mixes nostalgia, sadness and passion. Then follows another rhythmic idea with a distinctly militaristic feel. After increasingly intense dialogue between the two instruments, the opening melody returns unexpectedly at a much slower tempo, transforming the end of the movement into something cold and forbidding. After a wild and rhythmically insistent Scherzo, the muted cello’s melancholic solo which opens the “Largo” rises to an impassioned climax, though the final bars of the movement sound empty and desolate. Shostakovich’s caustic wit comes very much to the fore in the Finale. The recurring perky main theme frames a sequence of increasingly wild episodes whose fast and furious passagework is deliberately designed to stretch the technical capabilities of each performer.