Allegretto

Shostakovich wrote the Three Fantastic Dances Op. 5 in 1922, while still a teenager at the Petrograd Conservatoire. They were one of the first works he allowed into print: short, witty, slightly absurd character pieces that already show the dry humour and harmonic side-step that would mark his later style. The first of the three, Allegretto, is the brightest — a fast C-major dance with sharp accents and a slightly skewed harmonic logic.

Technically the piece tests three things at concert-grade standard. First, percussive articulation — the staccatos must bite, the accents must land sharply, and the dynamic profile is bright and spiky. Second, harmonic agility: Shostakovich's writing slips through unexpected key shifts that the player must trust against an ear trained on simpler harmonic logic. Third, rhythmic precision: the dance lives on its placement of accents on weak beats, and a square reading flattens the joke.

Two pitfalls. First, students smooth the accents and the dance loses its identity. Second, the unexpected key shifts are pointed at; they should slip past as part of Shostakovich's deadpan delivery, not be announced.

Listening: PD recordings of the Three Fantastic Dances are now widely available — Shostakovich's piano music started entering PD in 2025 in many jurisdictions. His own piano-roll recordings (where they exist) and Maria Yudina's historical recordings (now PD) are the canonical references.