By Nestor CASTIGLIONE

A veritable Shostakovich renaissance has swept the musical world in the past 25 years, his reputation – built on fame as well as notoriety in Russia and the West, often for extra-musical reasons – now hoisted aloft by public and not a few critics on a level that even exceeds such important composers of the 20th century like Stravinsky and Schoenberg. However one may feel about it, there’s no doubt that the reexamination of his work that has occurred since his death – spurred first by the publication of his purported memoirs in the late 1970s, then set racing by Ian MacDonald’s pugnacious study “The New Shostakovich” – has been among the most dramatic in recent memory.

Nevertheless, it is the Shostakovich of the years straddling the Second World War, which gave rise to the anguished heroism of his Fifth, Eighth, and Tenth Symphonies most notably, that has captured the focus of the public’s imagination. Yet the composer’s expressive spectrum was arguably wider in his early years, when he produced works that could be acidulously humorous as well as surprisingly lyrical and sweet.

The latter mood is displayed in winsome fashion in the composer’s “Piano Trio No. 1” from 1923, a product of his 16th year. Originally titled “Poème,” the work is striking not only for its fresh lyricism, but also for its frank Romanticism. Shadows of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin hanging over the single-movement piece: All composers whose influences would be purged in the adult Shostakovich’s music. Composed while receiving treatment for tuberculosis, the work was dedicated to Tatiana Glivenko, to whom he would become engaged to – and subsequently estranged from.

The piece will part of a group of Late Romantic Russian works programmed for next Sunday’s Le Salon de Musques concert at the fifth floor of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 N. Grand Avenue Los Angeles). Aside from the Shostakovich, the program will also include music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Arensky, and Taneyev.

The concert begins at 4 p.m. on Jan. 8. A question-and-answer period will be held after the performance with refreshments catered by Patina. Tickets are $45 for students and $85 for regular admission. They can be purchased at the door or by going online to lesalondemusiques.com. For more information call (310) 498-0257. Parking for the concert may be found at the Music Center garage on Grand Avenue.

  Nestor CASTIGLIONE