It was also a period of emotional turmoil in his life, as he had fallen in love with a young student at a Leningrad festival featuring his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District.

Their affair resulted in a brief separation from his wife Nina; he composed the Cello Sonata during this period.

He completed it within a few weeks and gave its premiere in Moscow on 25 December with his close friend, the cellist Viktor Kubatsky, who was also the piece's dedicatee.

Shostakovich repeats the first theme where all moves in slow motion, with staccato chords in the piano and sustained notes in the cello.

The finale's rondo theme appears five times, imitated by both instruments, interspersed by episodes of scalar runs.