Shostakovich composed his brief Concertino for two pianos, Op. 94, in 1954, for him and his son Maxim, who was then a student at the Moscow Conservatory, to play together. The brief, three-movement-in-one, concertino begins in the depth of the keyboards with tremolos and huge descending lines in the minor mode. The music soon switches to a faster tempo for the main body of the work; a lyrical tune in minor alternates with a playful tune in the major. After a dramatic development and a mournful episode, the concertino ends with racing passage work for both pianists.

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