Bach-Shostakovich
Bach-inspired Piano Works by Dmitri Shotakovich

Contents

Piano Transcriptions: Works
Piano Transcriptions: Links
Recordings of Bach-inspired Piano Works: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Dmitri Shostakovich - Short Biography

Works

24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, Op. 87

Op. 87

1950-1951

Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C major
Prelude & Fugue No. 2 in A minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 3 in G major
Prelude & Fugue No. 4 in E minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 5 in D major
Prelude & Fugue No. 6 in B minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 7 in A major
Prelude & Fugue No. 8 in F sharp minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 9 in E major
Prelude & Fugue No. 10 in C sharp minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 11 in B major
Prelude & Fugue No. 12 in G sharp minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major
Prelude & Fugue No. 14 in E flat minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 15 in D flat major
Prelude & Fugue No. 16 in B flat minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 17 in A flat major
Prelude & Fugue No. 18 in F minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 19 in E flat major
Prelude & Fugue No. 20 in C minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 21 in B-flat major
Prelude & Fugue No. 22 in G minor
Prelude & Fugue No. 23 in F major
Prelude & Fugue No. 24 in D minor

The 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 by Dmitri Shostakovich is a set of 24 piano pieces, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. While the musical style and ideas are Shostakovich's own, it follows the form of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, written some 200 years earlier.
Each piece is in two parts: a prelude; and a fugue woven from a musical idea taken from the prelude. The pieces vary in pace, length and complexity (for example, Fugue No. 13 in F-sharp major is in five voices, but Fugue No. 9 in E major is in only two voices). Unlike Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, in which the pieces are arranged in parallel major/minor pairs ascending the chromatic scale (C major, C minor, C sharp major, C sharp minor etc.), Shostakovich's set proceeds in relative major/minor pairs around the circle of fifths: first C major, then A minor, G major, E minor, D major, B minor, and so on, ending with D minor. (Frédéric Chopin's set of 24 Preludes, Op. 28, is organised in the same way, as are the earlier sets of preludes by Joseph Christoph Kessler and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.)
References to and quotations from Bach's cycle appear in many of the later pieces. There are also many references and musical ideas taken from Shostakovich's own work. The complete work takes about two and a half hours to play.
The complete work was written between October 10, 1950 and February 25, 1951. Once finished, Shostakovich dedicated the work to Nikolayeva, who undertook the public premiere in Leningrad on 23 December 1952. Once finished, Shostakovich dedicated the work to Tatiana Nikolayeva, who undertook the public premiere in Leningrad on December 23, 1952.
Source: Wikipedia Article (January 24, 2011)

Links

24 Preludes and Fugues (Shostakovich)

Desription; History; The pieces; Trivia; References; External links

Preludes & Fugues (24), for piano, Op. 87

Compostition Description

Opus 87: Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues for piano

List of recordings

Schostakowitsch: 24 Präludien und Fugen op. 87

Discussions [German]

From Despair to Delight - Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues plumb a dizzyingly diverse range of emotions

Comparative review of recordings

Aquí se encuentra toda la discografía de Shostakovich actualizada al 2006.

List of works and their recordings [Spanish]

Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues Op. 87

List of recordings

Dmitry Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues op. 87: An Analysis and Critical Evaluation of the Printed Edition Based on the Composer's Recorded Performance

A Doctoral Document (2010)

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Prepared by Aryeh Oron (February 2011)

Dmitri Shostakovich: Short Biography | Recordings of Instrumental Works | Bach-inspired Piano Works: Works | Recordings: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3