Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor

This single-movement trio was Shostakovich’s first essay in chamber music and it is one of his strangest and most disturbing early pieces. In the space of about ten minutes it lurches weirdly between modernity and romanticism, sometimes sounding like pure experiment, sometimes like Rachmaninov. It shows the young composer determined at all costs to avoid convention and academic formulae. Though decidedly odd, it still stands up as a concert piece today.





Note by Gerard McBurney