Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
by Dmitri Shostakovich
Composed in 1944 in the aftermath of the Leningrad blockade and dedicated to the memory of his close friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who died that year, the Second Piano Trio is Shostakovich's most shattering chamber work and one of the masterpieces of 20th-century music. Its four movements range from the ghostly harmonics of the cello opening — the most haunting beginning in the chamber repertoire — through a fierce, sardonic Scherzo, a profoundly elegiac Largo, and a finale that quotes the melody of a Jewish dance heard in a forced-labour camp, transforming it into a grotesque lament for the victims of genocide. The work demands from its performers not merely technical mastery but an emotional depth commensurate with its subject.
Editions
Muzgiz
Editorial staff, 1946
Soviet first edition; the original published text, important as a primary historical source despite later revisions.
Boosey & Hawkes
Editorial staff, 1958
Western edition that brought the work to international attention; the standard performing text used outside the Soviet Union for decades.
Sikorski
Editorial staff, 1975
Revised performing edition now widely used in international competitions and professional chamber music concerts worldwide.