Shostakovich: 24 Preludes & Fugues for Piano, Op. 87
Inspired by Tatiana Nikolaeva's playing of Bach at an East German piano competition, Shostakovich composed this takeoff (not to be confused with a rip-off) onThe Well-Tempered Clavierexpressly for her on her return to Russia. It turned out to be one of the greatest and most profound piano works of our century, and one which, until recently, remained virtually unknown. Shostakovich isn't usually thought of as a keyboard composer--indeed, there's relatively little piano music in his output. This work is special, however, because it reveals the composer dealing triumphantly with purely musical issues far removed from the epic, sometimes programmatic character of the symphonies, and the performance preserved here, by the dedicatee, is unbeatable.--David Hurwitz