Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57
Prelude: Lento
Fugue: Adagio
Scherzo: Allegretto
Intermezzo: Lento
Finale: Allegretto
A retrospective look over Shostakovich’s musical output might at first provoke surprise that he should have produced a piano quintet and two piano trios before delivering a major string quartet; so it could be instructive to dwell on the significance of the former in the development of its composer’s musical personality. It is worth remembering that a considerable redressing of balance occurred during the latter half of Shostakovich’s career, in that where he was once regarded primarily as a composer of large scale orchestral and vocal works he is now seen to have been equally concerned with chamber music forms. Most of the evidence for this lies in the magnificent series of fifteen string quartets, which accounted for an increasingly significant proportion of his creative energy during the final years of his life. But to begin with he felt more at home using his own instrument – he had studied both piano and composition at the Petrograd (Leningrad/St Petersburg) Conservatoire, and in those days probably had fanciful dreams of the glittering life of a virtuoso concert pianist. Indeed, he won a Diploma of Honour at the 1927 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw – in effect a consolation prize, since he had been one of the favourites to win, but had been hindered in his preparation by illness and family troubles.
Happily, the quintet grew out of a friendship with the Beethoven Quartet, who had given the first Moscow performance of the little string quartet (No.1) he had written in 1938. Having asked the composer for something for them to play together, they unveiled their joint creation at the Moscow Festival of Soviet Music on 23 November 1940; such was its instantaneous success that the scherzo and finale had to be encored. Their recorded performance has been intermittently available, and (I would suggest) has yet to be surpassed. Opinions may be divided as to the value of any composer’s renditions of his/her own music; but few would deny the intensity, eloquence, and sheer exuberance of this playing. There are certainly many lessons to be learned from it, and also from the numerous points of style and interpretation which arise throughout the performance.
And it is the pianist-composer himself who launches the action in grand improvisatory manner, as if anticipating one of the Bach-inspired Preludes and Fugues of 1950/1. In the same way, the awesome first entry of the strings (a passage which returns in both Fugue and Finale, like a motto) presents us with a sound which will become very familiar in the middle-period quartets. But it is the fusion of these two elements which is so thrilling; and by the end of this wide ranging overture we have already been treated to a richly varied display of the kinds of textures we are to encounter during the course of the work – most of them far removed from the massive nineteenth century concept of the piano quintet. The complementary fugue which follows (without a break) is a moving testament to Shostakovich’s gift for reaching the heart through the most rigorous of formal procedures. After four string entries in the exposition have all but dispelled our awareness of being involved in a quintet, the entry of the piano is surely one of the most inspired moments in chamber music, elevating feelings and emotions to sublime regions where the passing of time seems eternally suspended.
The quintet divides into five movements, a layout which proved to be a favourite of Shostakovich’s during his thirties – as was the type of scherzo which now restores our sense of reality and the present. For once, however, we have an example seemingly free of that biting irony which elsewhere is characteristic of such movements: the riotous good humour and sense of fun really must be genuine this time. We can laugh unashamedly at the misplaced accents, the hilariously dissonant counterpoint, or that silly first-violin tune which the poor, repressed viola feels he has just got to make a better job of!
A contrasting period of reflective meditation is provided by the Intermezzo’s endless lines of sweetly nostalgic cantilena. Feelings become impassioned, but soon subside into a kind of contemplative restlessness, out of which the Finale drowsily emerges, groping at first, but gradually acquiring renewed confidence. As with the quintet as a whole this movement explores a considerable range of contrasts, embracing the crudely boisterous, a smoky chromaticism, and a lullaby of child-like innocence which eventually vanishes in the merest wisp of sound.
© Alan George
