Prelude
Fugue
Scherzo
Intermezzo
Finale

After giving the premiere of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.1 in 1938, the members of the Beethoven Quartet suggested to Shostakovich that he should write a quintet. He spent much of 1939–40 on his edition of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, but in July 1940 he started work on the Piano Quintet, writing to Vasily Shirinsky (second violinist in the Beethoven Quartet) on 16 July: ‘Three days ago I started composing a piano quintet’, and again on 6 August suggesting himself as the pianist: ‘I would very much like to play it with you. Although I have never performed in public in such an ensemble, I think that it will be possible.’ Shostakovich completed the work on 14 September 1940 and gave a trial performance with the Glazunov Quartet in Leningrad the following month. In November he began rehearsing with the Beethoven Quartet for the official premiere in Moscow on 23 November. Before that, on 12 November, they performed the work for the Stalin Prize committee. According to Dmitri Tsyganov, first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, the Moscow premiere was ‘without exaggeration, a triumph’, adding that ‘as our encore we repeated the intermezzo and the finale, and then the Scherzo, so we played almost the whole piece twice.’ Shostakovich was elated by this success, confiding to a friend that after the concert he had been ‘wandering the streets of Moscow – my soul filled with bliss.’ Several more immensely successful performances and a Moscow Radio recording followed over the next few weeks, and in May 1941 the Piano Quintet was awarded the Stalin Prize. While Shostakovich was thrilled to have one of his works greeted with such enthusiasm, there was at least one dissenting voice: Prokofiev grumbled that ‘so young a composer, at the height of his powers, should be so much on his guard, and calculate every note so carefully. He never takes a single risk and one looks in vain for a daring impulse, a bold venture.’ The Quintet is in five movements. The Prelude opens in a grandly rhetorical style, and this is followed by a long and thoughtful fugue. Coming as a complete change, the Scherzo third movement finds Shostakovich in A boisterous, rustic mood. The Intermezzo recalls the style and mood of Bach’s instrumental arias, the melody unfolding over a steady ostinato bass line. The sonata form Finale begins with a gently witty idea which is followed by a much rowdier tune, first heard in octaves on the piano. In a delightful surprise, the work ends quietly.

Nigel Simeone