Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano (arr. Atovmian)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

We think of Shostakovich as one of the most deadly serious composers who ever lived, but he also wrote a great deal of "light" music-ballets, film scores, waltzes and even an operetta: Moscow, Cheryomushki, about the housing shortage in Moscow in the late 1950s. In the catalog of Shostakovich's works are several sets of short pieces for two violins and piano, and these charming pieces are an example of his lighter music, even if he did not actually compose these duets: they are arrangements for two violins and piano of themes from works he had composed over a period of twenty years. The Five Pieces were probably arranged by Shostakovich's good friend Lev Atovmian (1901-1973), a composer and administrator Shostakovich trusted to make the arrangements of his ballet and film scores. The music itself, however, is pure Shostakovich, here at his most melodic and appealing.

A note in the published score lists the sources of these five movements. The Prelude is from the music for the film The Gadfly (1955). The Gavotte was originally the second movement of his Third Ballet Suite, composed in 1952. The Elegy is also from the Third Ballet Suite, where it comprises the fourth movement; it was originally composed in 1934-35 as part of the music for the ballet The Limpid Stream. The Waltz comes from Shostakovich's music for the cartoon The Tale of the Priest and His Servant Balda (which was one of the earliest movies with sound-it dates from 1933-34). The concluding Polka was derived from the First Ballet Suite, though it too was originally part of the ballet The Limpid Stream.