DCCCXXVI. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri: Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in E Minor, Op. 67

DCCCXXVI. SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri (1906-1975)

Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in E Minor, Op. 67 (1944)
1. Andante -- Moderato
2. Allegro con brio
3. Largo
4. Allegretto -- Adagio
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Edgar Moreau, cello
Martha Argerich, piano
(30:40)

"Chamber music demands of a composer the most impeccable technique and depth of thought ..." -- DS

First movement

A haunting canon begun by the cellist playing artificial harmonics, way up high on his A string. The next entries are by the violin and piano.

The dirge-like opening transforms into a moderato.

The piano plays a variant of the opening melody set against staccato strings. The the piano picks up the staccato as the violin develops the material.

The movement ends with octave drops in the violin as the music dies down ...

Second movement

Perfect example of the grotesque in DS's music ...

 

Third movement

Eight-bar passacaglia with weird chords like bar 5 (G Major/F#), while the violin and cello engage in lovely counterpoint.

I often think that DS must have really enjoyed the sound of all those harmonics and phasing you can hear after these heavy chords are struck:

Fourth movement

A Dance of Death.

Shostakovich used Jewish -- or Jewish-type -- melodies in many of his compositions (this one also shows up in the Eighth Quartet).

Here -- under a rootless E Major vamp -- the violin plays this ultra-chromatic crazy melody pizzicato.

The cello enters upon the repetition -- playing pizzicato 1/4-notes, as the piano plays 1/8th-note offbeats.

The strings play quadruple stops as the melody is handed off to the piano -- in unison, two octaves apart.

 

Wrapping things up with a repetition of the passacaglia, the Jewish theme and plucks in E Major: