DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

 

Complete Preludes & Fugues

 

CD 1 Preludes & Fugues Nos 1-12

CD 2 Preludes & Fugues Nos 13-23

CD 3 DVD side: interview Alexander Melnikov

Prelude & Fugue No.24 in D minor

 

Alexander Melnikov (piano)

 

Shostakovich’s 1950 visit to Leipzig to attend the Bicentennial Bach competition, where he heard and was impressed by Tatiana Nikolaeva 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). Nikolaeva, 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.

 

DVD About the Preludes & fugues, interview with Alexander Melnikov and Andreas Staier

A film by Christian Leblé.

 

Format: NTSC

Language: English

Subtitles: Fr, Ger

Total time: 23’14

 

 

“…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

 

Harmonia Mundi 2cds + DVD HMC902019-20