Olli Mustonen

The impact of Bach's 'Wohltemperierte Klavier' is perhaps the greatest ever exerted by a single piece of music. It certainly influenced many generations of composers. Bach wrote the two collections of preludes and fugues 'zum Nutzen und Gebrauch der Lehrbegierigen Musicalischen Jugend'. The forty-eight preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys were written for a double educational purpose. On the one hand, they offer a wealth of keyboard exercises; on the other, they are an encyclopaedia of all possible contrapuntal techniques, in which Bach excelled. Between October 1950 and February 1951, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a series of twenty-four preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys, following Bach's example. The idea was sparked off by the Bachfest in Leipzig in 1950, where Shostakovitch had been invited to sit on the jury of the piano competition. He was very impressed by the young pianist Tatiana Nikolaieva, who played the complete 'Wohltemperierte Klavier' from memory and deservedly won first prize. On his return to Moscow, Shostakovich started composing his Preludes and Fugues opus 87. By way of homage, they start with the same notes as the first book of Bach's magnum opus. They were first performed by Tatiana Nikolaieva in two concerts in Leningrad on 23rd and 28th December 1952.