Dmitri Shostakovich

On the way to premiere his Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 40, (1934), Shostakovich reportedly first read Stalin's statement in Pravda attacking his music as "bourgeois." Indeed, the period that was to follow was a trying one for the composer, culminating in the execution of one of his most ardent supporters in the Soviet government and the withdrawal of several of his works from rehearsal and performance. The sonata, however, did not raise the ire of the state, though not because it lacked Shostakovich's characteristically problematic sarcasm. It is written very much in the style of the composer's large-scale symphonic works: four movements rife with cynicism, despair, and mockery. The opening movement is in a conventional sonata form, complete with a repeating exposition built around two resignedly lyrical themes. The main theme never truly recapitulates, though it reappears in sluggish mode following a restatement of the second subject, bringing the movement to a haunting, mysterious close.

The tactless Scherzo opens with coarse, repetitive sawing from the cello, over which the piano plays a rather heavy-handed melody in which the composer irreverently bites his thumb at those who would make his music more "accessible." The ornamented, aria-like third movement juxtaposes slow, dragging despair with passionate hope before dying away into a heavy silence.

The rude, comically sinister finale, which builds tremendous momentum only to come to an abrupt and unceremonious end, effectively snubs those looking forward to a showy, brilliant finish.