Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87
Shostakovich performed at a Bach bicentennial festival at Leipzig in 1950. Under the spell of Bach, he quickly wrote this homage, which contains some of his most consistently inspired and inventive music. After half a century, it is now accepted as a timeless classic, a sincere homage to Bach, still individual and expressive. Shostakovich wrote the music for his student Tatiana Nikolayeva, who performed the world premiere. Her three recordings of the cycle are close to definitive, especiallythe set on Melodiya, which is economically priced but uneconomically spread over three CDs. Scherbakov, who has already made some impressive discs for Naxos, provides a very strong challenge. No recording of this cycle has captured the brooding, inward quality of some of this music as well as Nikolayeva's, but Scherbakov comes close. Where virtuosity is required, he actually surpasses the impressive Nikolayeva. Considering the fine sound quality and extremely reasonable price of this set, it's at least a clear second choice for the ultimate recording of the series, and probably a good first choice for an introduction to the music. The performances are even superior to the well-known versions byKeith JarrettandVladimir Ashkenazy.--Leslie Gerber