Shostakovich’s Op. 34 belongs to the twentieth century’s great prelude cycles: twenty-four compact works traversing the full tonal spectrum. Auerbach’s viola-and-piano arrangement preserves the complete sequence while allowing the viola to draw out a different grain of expression: darker, more human-voiced, and closer to lament.

The piano remains a structural and harmonic force, while the viola becomes the second voice of the cycle — singing, biting, darkening, and carrying Shostakovich’s sharply etched miniatures into a chamber dialogue of unusual intensity.

• Source Shostakovich Op. 34.
• Arrangement Lera Auerbach, 2010.
• Forces Viola and piano.

Auerbach also arranged Shostakovich’s Op. 34 for violoncello and piano in 2008, and earlier made a five-prelude violin-and-piano selection in 2000, conceived together with Dmitri Tsyganov’s existing arrangement of nineteen preludes to complete the violin-and-piano cycle.

The viola-and-piano version was premiered in Bloomfield Hills by Kim Kashkashian and Lera Auerbach on 10 June 2010.

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