Shostakovich's Preludes (later published as his Opus 2) were among the pieces he performed for Alexander Glazunov in 1919 to gain entry into the Petrograd Conservatory. Although the piano pedagogue Alexander Siloti had already heard the 13-year-old play and judged that "he [had] no musical abilities," Glazunov, the Director of the Conservatory declared "I cannot remember ever having had such gifted children ... within the walls of the Conservatory." Indeed, according one of Shostakovich's friends at the Conservatory, Glazunov also believed that Shostakovich possessed "a gift comparable to that of Mozart" (quotes from Shostakovich, Laurel Fay, p. 14 - 15).

They are amazing pieces for a 13-year-old, although Shostakovich withdrew three of them a year later on the grounds that they were "immature" (this from a 14-year-old). The first, Allegro moderato e scherzando in A minor, is written entirely in the treble clef with the lowest note being the A below middle C. The second, Andante in the Mixolydian mode on G, has a gentle melody in the right hand above a rocking figure in the left hand. The third, Allegro moderato in E minor, is a virtuoso piece in the manner of Rachmaninov's Preludes and one of the few works Shostakovich ever wrote that sound like the older composer. The fourth, Moderato in D flat major, is a quiet and inward piece which sounds at times like Janácek's On the Overgrown Path in its harmonic progressions and like late Scriabin in its melodic obliqueness. The final Prelude, Andantino in F minor, is a melancholic, almost tragic, musing on a theme which was to become the basis of Eleventh Symphony of 1957.

Shostakovich later contributed the original eight Preludes to a joint composition with two Conservatory friends, G. Clements and P. Feldt, to form a set of 24 Preludes.

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