Sonata for Cello and Piano. Op. 40. Moderato for Cello and Piano. Sans op.

Sonata for Cello and Piano.

Op. 40

This publication of the Sonata for Cello and Piano is based on the edition of the Sonata edited by Viktor Kubatsky, which was the last edition of the work during the composer’s lifetime—Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1971 (E-71), the edition of the Sonata in Volume 38 of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Collected Works, which is based on E-71—Muzyka Publishers, Moscow, 1982 (E-82), and the 2007 edition based on the two above-mentioned editions—DSCH, Moscow (E-2007), which is a republication of the 1996 edition (DSCH, Moscow). The fair author’s manuscript of the work is taken into consideration, and in a few disputable episodes, the cello parts (separate notebooks) of the three main editions (E-71P, E-82P, E-2007P) are also taken into account.

Since E-71, E-82 and E-2007 are working editions to an equal extent for performers, all the essential differences between E-71, E-82, E-2007 and this edition are stipulated. Obvious slips of the pen in E‑71, E‑82 and E-2007 are corrected without specification.

In E-2007, an additional version of the articulation marks based on manuscript, which is not included in this edition, is given in the main notation in V‑c. part below the stave.

First, a complete presentation in the V‑c. part of performance directions (including articulation marks) from manuscript is in many cases incompatible visually with the presentation of performance directions in the fair manuscript.

Secondly, the changes made by Viktor Kubatsky in the V‑c. part are linked with more significant changes (primarily done by the author) in the general notation of the Sonata (changes in tempo, dynamic signs, and the music itself, etc.), while the representation in these aspects of manuscript as an additional version of the execution is in the overwhelming majority of cases incompatible with the main notation.

In these comments, the differences between manuscript and the other editions in terms of articulation marks (both in the V‑c. part and in the P‑no part) are not specified; however, all the significant above-mentioned changes in manuscrip are stipulated in the comments.

Moderato for Cello and Piano.

Sans Op.

Moderato for Cello and Piano can now be added to Shostakovich’s few cello compositions.

The author’s manuscript of this piece is kept in Dmitri Shostakovich’s personal depository in RSALA (rec. gr. 2048, inv. 1, f. 25, pp. 8‑9). The manuscript was found among the pages of the holograph of Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, where it was most likely placed by the composer himself. It is possible that this Moderato is a movement of the Sonata not included in its final version. However, neither the paper on which the piece was written, nor the colour of the ink makes it possible to claim this with complete certainty. It is possible that the composer placed this manuscript in that of Sonata, Op. 40 in keeping with genre, so to speak.

The article and piece was first published in: Sovetskaya muzyka, No. 9, 1986, p. 45 (Manashir Yakubov: “Unknown Composition by Dmitri Shostakovich: Moderato for Cello and Piano”).