Alexander Melnikov

PLEASE NOTE! 7pm! The entire 24 Preludes and Fugues opus 87 of Shostakovich in a single evening - that's more than two and a half hours of music! But the pianist Alexander Melnikov thinks nothing of such a 'tour de force'. Shostakovich wrote the cycle for Tatjana Nikolajeva, whom he had heard playing during a piano competition in Leipzig on the occasion of the bicentenary of Bach's death. She had dashed off the entire 'Das Wohltemperierte Klavier' (both books!) from memory and had promptly walked off with the first prize. This impressed Shostakovich so much that he wrote a series of twenty-four preludes and fugues for her in every key, following Bach's example. Nikolajeva gave the first public performance of them in 1952 and retained them in her repertoire throughout her life - indeed, her name has become synonymous with them. Her recitals at deSingel in 1990 were unforgettable and she has called the cycle "a monolith, from beginning to end, with an exceedingly wide range of emotions". The Preludes and Fugues demand the utmost from the performer in terms not only of technique, but also expression and stamina. Alexander Melnikov plays his heart out and opens up a world of rich, radical antitheses that are locked up in the work. Between sorrow and hope - between rebellion and idyll. A worthy successor to Nikolajeva. Quite simply, overwhelming!