24 Preludes & Fugues

Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues originated when he travelled to Leipzig in 1950 for a festival commemorating the 200th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death. In a piano competition he helped adjudicate while there, Shostakovich heard the young Soviet pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva play one of Bach’s iconic 48 Preludes and Fugues, and on his return to Moscow was spurred to start composing a similar cycle of his own. To construct it, Shostakovich wrote a prelude and fugue in both the major and minor key for each of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Over the two and a half hours it takes for a complete performance, the mood of the pieces ranges widely. The first Prelude (in C major) exudes an apparent serenity, while its “Fugue” is gently musing. More turbulent emotions quickly surface, however. “Fugue No. 2” is spikily aggressive, while “Prelude No. 3” announces itself in sternly dramatic fashion. The concluding “Fugue No. 24” is especially introspective, an eight-minute essay in emotional catharsis. Taken as a whole, the 24 Preludes and Fugues are among Shostakovich’s most intimately autobiographical compositions, movingly documenting the personal travails involved in composing under the constant controlling scrutiny of the Soviet state authorities.