Shostakovich Prelude 87

These preludes and fugures by Shostakovich are not the easiest in the world for interpretation. Think a Slavic Bach. It is unfair to call these works "modern" and it's not just because they are with the confines of a Medieval form. But sometimes the listener will catch something that is reminiscent of 20th centyury Soviet music. These works are miniatures - a form totally at odds with the usual way we consider the composer. Tatiana Nikolayeva is simply brilliant in her interpretation - the clarity is startling. It may take a while but this is a recording that appreciates the more it is heard.

The first volume in an adventurous new series juxtaposing the piano music of Shostakovich with his most talented pupils. As a teacher at the Moscow Conservatoire for many years, Shostakovich trained a generation of the Soviet Union’s most talented composers. He was renowned for a sharp ear and kindly criticism which immediately focused its attention on areas of weakness in a score without requiring that his pupils follow his own path. Indeed, all three of the younger composers here demonstrate the individuality of their own voice.

These are excellent performances of exceptionally interesting repertoire. Prokofiev himself arranged 19 numbers from his Cinderella ballet for solo piano, so he surely would not have objected in principle to their reworking for two pianos; nor in practice, I suspect, because Pletnev’s arrangements are fabulously idiomatic and the playing here has all the requisite sparkle and drive. Shostakovich’s Op 6 Suite is far too seldom heard. True, it is an apprentice piece and open to criticism – both the first two movements peter out rather unconvincingly and the blend of grandiosity à la Rachmaninov and academic dissection of material à la Taneyev is not always a happy or very original one. But as a learning experience the Suite was a vital springboard for the First Symphony a couple of years later and there is real depth of feeling in the slow movement, as well as intimations elsewhere of the obsessive drive of the mature Shostakovich. What a phenomenally talented 16-year-old he was!

Dmitri Shostakovich's epic series of preludes and fugues for solo piano was inspired by the very composer whom you would immediately suspect – Johann Sebastian Bach. Indeed, the Russian composer was motivated to write this huge work after a visit to Bach's home city Leipzig in 1950; and, in fact, it resurrects the premise behind Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier," providing one prelude and fugue for every major and minor key.

Keith Jarrett - Dmitri Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Opus 87 (1992) {2CD Set ECM New Series 1469/70}
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© 1992 ECM Records | ECM New Series 1469/70
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Piano Solo

The pairing of music and musician in this exquisite recording is so serendipitous, it is almost as if Keith Jarrett were playing one of his sweeping improvisations. He is not, of course; this is Shostakovich's unmistakable voice, and it is speaks in wide-ranging profundity. Each listening takes me deeper, and exposes things I had not heard before: one of my all-time favorite recordings.