Like most illustrious composers, Dmitri Shostakovich was a remarkable pianist. We know that he entered the Petrograd Conservatory to study piano at the age of thirteen and that he graduated there in 1926 with the composition of a symphonic work (as it was to be, his enthusiastically received First Symphony). But around the same time, the young pianist and future composer were earning some money as an accompanist for silent films. And in 1927 (the composer was 21 years old), he ventured to participate in the first Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He did not win, but he reached the finals, obtaining a worthy Honorable Mention.
Had he won, a career as a virtuoso performer would have shaped history differently. Possibly we would not know the Fifth Symphony or the Seventh (Leningrad Symphony). Neither his chamber music nor his extensive catalog of music for the cinema (where the soundtrack of the Soviet "Hamlet", from 1963, stands out without parallel).
He did not win, but an honorable mention in Warsaw was no mean feat. Despite his ultimate dedication to composition, as a performer, Shostakovich did not stop appearing in public until an advanced age, preferably with his own works.
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| Shostakovich, at 25 (1906 - 1975) |
However, the music he composed for piano only occupies a small portion of his entire oeuvre, although the 24 Preludes, from 1932, and the 24 Preludes and Fugues, from 1950, stand out among them.
On a notoriously lesser level, the suite of short pieces that the composer called Dances of the Dolls, stands out for its simple charm. It's a compilation of works taken from his ballet suites, which at the same time were taken from ballets, from his music for the cinema, or from incidental music for various works.
Compiled in 1953, the little suite consists of the following seven charming miniatures:
0:00 Lyric Waltz
1:24 Gavotte
2:25 Romance
4:36 Polka
5:48 Waltz - Joke
8:06 Hurdy - gurdy
8:34 Dance
The rendition is by the Russian artist Dmitry Masleev.
