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Piano cycle of Shostakovich
PREVIEW: COLIN STONE PERFORMS SHOSTAKOVICH
Red Hedgehog
MORE than 200 years after J S Bach wrote the Well-Tempered Clavier, a cycle of pieces written in every major and minor key, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his own piano cycle.
And now the pianist Colin Stone is to perform the 24 pieces in two concerts at the Red Hedgehog venue beginning with the first 12 on Sunday.
Like Bach’s cycle before, Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, with each written for each key, have become a significant part of the pianist’s canon.
Unlike Bach, who wrote his Well-Tempered Clavier in ascending chromatic order, Shostakovich used the same set-up as Chopin in his preludes, working on a circle and fifths, with corresponding minor keys.
But in body Shostakovich owes much to Bach, with numerous musical quotations and references to Bach’s work; the first prelude even begins with the same note as Bach’s.
Shostakovich was inspired to write his prelude and fugues after hearing a performance of several of Bach’s works by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva in a festival celebrating the bicentenary of Bach’s death in Leipzip in 1950.
As Shostakovich wrote the works, Nikolayeva would visit him and play each pieces. The series was completed in February 1951 and premiered in December 1952.
There is an excellent recording of the whole cycle by the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett and if Colin Stone can approach anything like this the concerts will be a huge success.
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