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24 Preludes & Fugues for Piano
Shostakovich, Nikolayeva
24 Preludes & Fugues for Piano
Genre: Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (6) - Disc #2
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #3

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) on The Well-Tempered Clavier expressly for her on her return to Ru...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Shostakovich, Nikolayeva
Title: 24 Preludes & Fugues for Piano
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Melodiya
Release Date: 6/13/1995
Genre: Classical
Styles: Historical Periods, Early Music
Number of Discs: 3
SwapaCD Credits: 3
UPC: 743211984928

Synopsis

Amazon.com essential recording
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) on The Well-Tempered Clavier expressly 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

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CD Reviews

A masterful performance of masterful music
10/24/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is magical, magical music. It is intimate Shostakovich, at his most poetic and lyrical, the thought of Bach creating a balance, beauty, and spiritual quality to Shostakovich's music that, for me,surpasses all his other music.Nikolaeva captures the poetry and noble weight of this music. This is the better of her two recordings available on disc. It is more tightly recorded,and it is more economical in performance, more direct than her Hyperion recording.It is said, that, unlike Ashkenazy, she doesn't capture the humour of this music, according to a reviewer above. I have never found Shostakovich humorous.Sometimes he is satirical, but not in this music."
Around Shostakovich ` s centenary!
Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 03/31/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"The prodigal hands and astonishing spirituality of Tatiana Nikolayeva has been submitted of intense analysis in the spheres of the Western World. She seemed a legitimate heiress of past traditions, that characterized the creative atmosphere generated by them at the same time to play just the first bar.



Curiously she is scantily known in spite of by her winning performances of Johan Sebastian Bach. So since that state of things it is so easy to understand these Shostakovich ' s preludes are so wonderful and fabulously played; impeccable phrasing, earnest expression, dramatic breath and first order inspiration. Somehow she was a muse for Dimitri at those hard times of oppression and struggling environment; where the art went much further.



The eternal debt of these Preludes are because Bach, but represent to my mind the highest legacy bequeathed by Shostakovich for this instrument.

"
A collector's "must have"!
Hiram Gomez Pardo | 01/20/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"These Preludes & Fugues, inspired from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, are performed by the individual to whom they were dedicated. Tatiana Nikolayeva interprets these pieces with the utmost excellence of execution, and shows us the remarkable multi-facetedness of these works. Impeccable technique, poetry, sensitivity, and authoritative scholarship make this recording of Shostakovich's 24 masterpieces a "must have" for any serious music collector."