Shostakovich: Preludes & Fugues Op. 87

Album information

SHOSTAKOVICH’S ICONIC OPUS, PAIRED WITH A SKETCH-DERIVED PRELUDE & FUGUE COMPLETED BY KRZYSZTOF MEYER

The internationally renowned pianist Yulianna Avdeeva presents Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, one of the most important works in the piano repertoire. This monumental cycle harks back to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and is considered one of the most demanding works for piano ever written. Avdeeva joins an elite group of pianists who have undertaken the challenge of performing the complete opus, which is rarely heard in its entirety.

To complement this iconic work, Avdeeva also presents the completion of an alternative Prelude and Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, discovered by leading Shostakovich expert Olga Digonskaya and completed by composer and Shostakovich biographer Krzysztof Meyer. Shostakovich sketched an initial prelude in C-Sharp Minor in 1950, but then decided to compose a new prelude-fugue pair in this key, which eventually found its way into Opus 87. The sketch of the original prelude was found in the Shostakovich archive in Moscow in 2005; Krzysztof Meyer completed the fragment in 2019 and added his own fugue “in the style of Shostakovich”. This discovery adds a new and exciting dimension to the cycle and will be an important part of the story behind the album.

Avdeeva returns to PENTATONE after her acclaimed label debut with Resilience (2023), and Chopin: Voyage (2024), both of which received outstanding reviews for their exceptional artistry and interpretation.

Released physically on 2 standard CDs.

REVIEWS:

BBC Radio 3 Record Review: Album of the Week

Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik: Winner – keyboard music

MusicWeb International: “There are no weak spots that I can detect throughout the whole set, and the whole also has a satisfying feeling of a narrative traversal, right down to that simple but inspired Prelude No. 17 that hints of arrival, and the final landing in D minor, the last fugue again with its now familiar sense of flow and momentum without loss of expressive weight.”

Scherzo: “Yulianna Avdeeva is one of the best living pianists… her interpretations are not the dramatic, dark, and desolate ones we are accustomed to.”

Hudobný život: “Avdeeva brings to the music delicate, luminous textures full of soaring lyricism, brilliance and peace. She has a slender, subtle and gentle tone, perfect technical certainty, a kind of neoclassical charm and natural phrasing without any mannerism or agogic arbitrariness.”

2026 ICMA AWARD NOMINATION