In February 1944, Shostakovich lost a friend -- not a casual friend, but a close friend, one he had known since school days, one with whom he could openly share his thoughts. This man, Ivan Sollertinsky, was a leading music critic, a brilliant intellectual and, at the time, was artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The influence that he had on Shostakovich had been so profound that its philosophical impact had widened the composer's horizons and caused him to view his work in a new context. By 1944, the war with Germany was taking a bad turn. As the enemy continued to advance, the order came for the Leningrad Philharmonic to evacuate and Sollertinsky left the city with his orchestra. He never came back, for during the journey he was struck down by a heart attack and died. He was still a young man. When the news of this tragedy reached Shostakovich, at this time living in Moscow, he was utterly devastated. The Piano Trio in E Minor is a memorial to his dead friend and it held a significant place in the estimate Shostakovich set on his works.
This trio was one of the two he composed in that form. It took shape during the summer of 1944, and received its premiere performance in the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall on November 14 of that year. The artists were Dmitri Tsyganov, violin; S. Shiransky, cello (both were members of the famous Beethoven Quartet); and Shostakovich, piano.
According to Dmitri Rabinovich, a well-known Soviet music critic and close friend of the composer, "The whole first movement leaves the impression of a calm and clear picture of everyday, specifically Russian, life." The brooding passages that open the work are related to Slavic folk melody, a touching reference to Sollertinsky's own heredity. Scoring for the strings creates such an unusual effect that it leaves an impression that the two had changed places; the violin is confined to its lowest register on the G string, accompanied by a thin tremolo on the cello. The mood takes an abrupt turn as the second movement becomes a lively Scherzo, the piano supplies a somber back ground for the third movement dialogue between violin and cello. This leads into the Finale and Shostakovich seems to have been saving up his forces to make a powerful impact with this remarkable movement. As he was working on it, news began to filter in of unspeakable things happening to Soviet Jews in the Nazi death camps at Majdanek and Treblinka. So shocking were these tales, that it is thought they had a direct bearing on the trio's finale, for it becomes a sinister death dance that freezes the very soul, a dance like that of the helpless victims forced to dance on their own graves before their execution. There is a coda, and now the main theme of the first movement returns, this time with determination, as if to prevail against every onslaught and transcend the evils of an ugly world.
Program notes by © Susan Halpern 2025