Piano Sonata no. 1, op. 12

The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 61 by Dmitri Shostakovich, the last of his piano sonatas, was composed in early 1943. It was his first solo piano composition since 1933, as well as his second attempt at composing a piano sonata in the key of B minor.

Shostakovich began composing the sonata while he and his family were evacuated in Kuybyshev (present-day Samara). A few months before, he heard about the death of his former piano teacher Leonid Nikolayev, which affected him profoundly; the sonata is dedicated to his memory. Originally, Shostakovich had planned a four-movement sonata in C♯ minor, but by March 1943 had abandoned that idea in favor of the work's final three-movement form. Shostakovich premiered the sonata in Moscow on June 6, 1943.