I discovered this music when I was fifteen, watching a documentary on television in which Vladimir Ashkenazy performed one of the pieces. It struck a chord with me. I had already been obsessed with Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier for some time, and this twentieth-century variant fascinated me immediately.
When Hannes Minnaar, one of the leading musicians of our time, was recording Bach's Goldberg Variations in 2020, he already proposed the idea of making an album with Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. With this pure Bach music in mind, thoughts naturally turned to this work by the Russian composer, he explains. That's hardly surprising, despite the roughly two hundred years between the creation of these pieces: both works form their own universe of polyphonic music.
Like virtually every composer, Shostakovich devoted himself to Bach's oeuvre throughout his life. His preludes and fugues, composed in 1950/1951, are far more extreme than Bach's. Especially the preludes, which sometimes have a symphonic character. And although the fugues are just as strict as Bach's, he invents his own rules: for instance, the first fugue is played only on the white keys. The theme of the seventh fugue is essentially one large broken chord. In his own way, he explores the boundaries of what's possible.
After Bach's Goldberg Variations, which brought him worldwide recognition (including a Diapason d'Or), Hannes Minnaar again demonstrates the qualities of his piano playing on this album: his nuanced touch, spontaneity, natural refinement in phrasing, and familiarity with the score go hand in hand with a freshness that evokes a sense of improvisation. The result is a new milestone in the series of interpretations of this beautiful music.
*If you make a purchase via the above link, we receive a small commission. This allows us to continue providing you with reviews and articles. By buying something through our link, you support us in writing new articles. Products will never cost you more when you use our links.
