Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues for piano (24), Op. 87

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Melnikov unquestionably gives an impression of freshness and daring, as if he's discovering the music for the first time...Certainly one's bound to feel, listening to such superb playing, that... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2010, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 26th Apr 2010
Catalogue No: HMC972019/20
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 2 hours 30 minutes

Sunday Times

2010

Albums of the Year
Record Review

December 2010

Critics' Disc of the Year
BBC Music Magazine Awards

2011

Instrumental Award Winner

Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues for piano (24), Op. 87

Work length2:30:48

$48.60

$60.75

Prelude no.1 in C major. Moderato

Track length3:01

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Fugue no.1 in C major. Moderato (4-voice)

Track length3:15

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Prelude no.2 in A minor. Allegro

Track length0:55

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Fugue no.2 in A minor. Allegretto (3-voice)

Track length1:24

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Prelude no.3 in G major. Moderato non troppo

Track length1:56

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Fugue no.3 in G major. Allegro molto (3-voice)

Track length1:42

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Prelude no.4 in E minor. Andante

Track length2:49

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Fugue no.4 in E minor. Adagio (4-voice double fugue)

Track length5:00

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Prelude no.5 in D major. Allegretto

Track length1:39

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Fugue no.5 in D major. Allegretto (3-voice)

Track length1:51

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Prelude no.6 in B minor. Allegretto

Track length1:36

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Fugue no.6 in B minor. Moderato (4-voice)

Track length5:22

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Prelude no.7 in A major. Allegro poco moderato

Track length1:07

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Fugue no.7 in A major. Allegretto (3-voice)

Track length2:26

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Prelude no.8 in F sharp minor. Allegretto

Track length1:22

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Fugue no.8 in F sharp minor. Andante (3-voice)

Track length8:43

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Prelude no.9 in E major. Moderato non troppo

Track length2:36

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Fugue no.9 in E major. Allegro (2-voice)

Track length1:39

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Prelude no.10 in C sharp minor. Allegro

Track length1:57

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Fugue no.10 in C sharp minor. Moderato (4-voice)

Track length5:20

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Prelude no.11 in B major. Allegro

Track length1:19

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Fugue no.11 in B major. Allegro (3-voice)

Track length2:09

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Prelude no.12 in G sharp minor. Andante

Track length4:17

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Fugue no.12 in G sharp minor. Allegro (4-voice)

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Prelude no.13 in F sharp minor. Moderato con moto

Track length2:27

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Fugue no.13 in F sharp minor. Adagio (5-voice)

Track length4:44

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Prelude no.14 in E flat minor. Adagio

Track length4:45

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Fugue no.14 in E flat minor. Allegro non troppo (3-voice)

Track length2:55

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Prelude no.15 in D flat major. Allegretto

Track length2:53

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Fugue no.15 in D flat major. Allegro molto (4-voice)

Track length1:42

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Prelude no.16 in B flat minor. Andante

Track length2:42

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Fugue no.16 in B flat minor. Adagio (3-voice)

Track length7:30

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Prelude no.17 in A flat major. Allegretto

Track length1:51

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Fugue no.17 in A flat major. Allegretto (4-voice)

Track length3:28

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Prelude no.18 in F minor. Moderato

Track length2:15

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Fugue no.18 in F minor. Moderato con moto (4-voice)

Track length4:00

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Prelude no.19 in E flat major. Allegretto

Track length1:50

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Fugue no.19 in E flat major. Moderato con moto (3-voice)

Track length2:47

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Prelude no.20 in C minor. Adagio

Track length3:58

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Fugue no.20 in C minor. Moderato (4-voice)

Track length4:50

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Prelude no.21 in B flat major. Allegro

Track length1:09

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Fugue no.21 in B flat major. Allegro non troppo (3-voice

Track length2:50

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Prelude no.22 in G minor. Moderato non troppo

Track length2:17

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Fugue no.22 in G minor. Moderato (4-voice)

Track length4:01

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Prelude no.23 in F major. Adagio

Track length3:05

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Fugue no.23 in F major. Moderato con moto (3-voice)

Track length3:16

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Prelude no.24 in D minor. Andante

Track length4:03

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Fugue no.24 in D minor. Moderato (4-voice double fugue)

Track length7:45

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Shostakovich’s 1950 visit to Leipzig to attend the Bicentennial Bach competition, where he heard and was impressed by Tatiana Nikolayeva playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, served as an impetus to write his own set of Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues, loosely modelled on Bach’s. This he accomplished with remarkable, almost unbelievable speed upon his return home (it took him a mere three and a half months). Nikolayeva, blessed as she was with a phenomenal musical memory, performed Op. 87 for the rest of her life, and her name became practically synonymous with the work. This Op. 87 from Alexander Melnikov approaches the work from first principles to come up with his own, eminently musical solutions.

“…throughout op.87 we hear the voice of a tormented man, finding again and again the superhuman force to face life as it is – in all its variety, ugliness, and sometimes beauty.” Alexander Melnikov

"He has brought new audiences to [these works], and when you hear him play them, you understand why. Stylistically and temperamentally, they suit him remarkably well. This is music that is strenuous and searching without ever aspiring to flamboyance, and Melnikov is a self-effacing performer. He makes us aware of the music's paradox: that subordination to the rigours of Bach-like form permits great expressive, even political freedom. So we were reminded that the E Minor Prelude and Fugue is one of Shostakovich's big triumph-in-adversity pieces, and that the huge G Sharp Minor coupling into which the first half seemingly collapses is a tragic statement of searing intensity. All this was utterly mesmerising" (The Guardian on a live performance at the Wigmore Hall, 28th April 2011)

Reviews

June 2010

Melnikov unquestionably gives an impression of freshness and daring, as if he's discovering the music for the first time...Certainly one's bound to feel, listening to such superb playing, that this is indeed one of the greatest contrapuntal cycles since Bach. Overall, then, a magnificent achievement.

August 2010

Few pianists have shown themselves to be so sensitive to music which is the response of a complex visionary to the corrosive banality of Soviet life at the time...[Melnikov] responds to all this with an impeccable all-Russian mastery and with a poetic commitment few could equal.

March/April 2011

A towering achievement

October 2010

Melnikov is consistently alert to (and in control of) the music's dizzying variety of idioms and tones of voice...[He] conveys the scope of the collection as a totality with such consistent penetration and invention that this expertly engineered set can be enthusiastically endorsed for anyone seeking a complete recording

20th June 2010

For all his brilliance in the extrovertly Bachian numbers, Melnikov, more than either Nikolayeva or Ashkenazy, is especially compelling in the internalised movements (the C minor and D minor preludes and fugues), baring the innermost thoughts of Shostakovich’s tormented soul. Simply unforgettable.

25th April 2010

In this muscular, virile account, [Nikolayeva's] fellow Russian Alexander Melnikov makes you wonder why these works are considered monotonous or didactic. In his virtuosic hands, each one glints.

Videos

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Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues for piano (24), Op. 87

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