Some would argue that
Dmitry Shostakovich was the greatest composer of the 20th century; while many of his contemporaries were cloistering themselves in ivory towers, he took some of the worst the century had to dish out, outlasted his enemies, and prospered. If anyone earned the right to bear homage to
Bach's preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier,
Shostakovich did. His 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, were composed in 1950 and 1951, probably intended for performance at a
Bach symposium in the then East German city of Leipzig. This was at the height of Stalinist repression, and it is striking how deftly
Shostakovich stayed within cultural strictures (what could be less threatening than an homage to
Bach?) while inserting his own ideas under the surface. The music quotes
Bach,
Shostakovich's own works, even We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The latter comes in a D flat prelude included in a second volume; the present release covers only the first 12 preludes and fugues, reaching G sharp minor in the major-minor circle of fifths. There are as many ways to perform these works as there are pianists, and this recording by Cypriot-British player
Marios Papadopoulos, made in 1990 and reissued by the Oxford Philomusica label in 2006, was one of the first to liberate the Preludes and Fugues from rigid Baroque-like interpretations.
Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the artists who has followed in
Papadopoulos' tracks, and the original remains well worth hearing. He joins each prelude and fugue as a distinct unit, applying plenty of rubato and pedal, and emphasizing the dynamic of the overall set: the music builds to a climax in the sizable, tragic G sharp minor pair, whose prelude resembles one of the gloomy
Shostakovich melodies that occurred so often in the second half of his career. One gets the sense that
Papadopoulos' set was meant to be listened to in its entirety, but there's plenty to chew on in this first installment of beautifully individualized yet coherently connected pieces. Some may prefer a slightly less Romantic reading, but this influential recording remains highly recommended.