Shostakovich: Prelude and Fugues, No. 12 in G# minor and No. 17 in Ab major

[fignewton]

These are two of my favorite P/Fs from the magnificent set of 24 by Shostakovich, especially the fugues which are both four voices, in 5/4, and very exciting yet contrasting in character from one another.

[pianistavt]

Kudos for playing/recording some 20th century music!  I kvetch a lot about how students get stuck in the trenches conservatory pedagogy has carved over the decades - Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt.

I listened to the first one so far.  The prelude was very good, nice tone and phrasing.  I thought the forte in opening of the fugue sounded too harsh, kind of bangy - - is it ff?  I assume you know the piano pretty well, but maybe not.

Will listen to the second soon.

Thanks for posting!

[brogers70]

These are great! Thank you for posting them.

[fignewton]

Thank you for listening and your comments, Pianistavt. It is hard for me to verbalize the mood of the G# fugue, but some words that come to mind are defiance and desperation, and I think the strident tone of the opening subject helps bring these qualities out, especially after the passacaglia prelude which, due to the repetitive nature of the form, has this sense of impending doom, imo. While the opening subject is only marked forte, Shostakovich does write marcatissimo next to it and with an accent throughout the first two thirds of the piece on almost every occurrence of it following an episode, so I think this somewhat brutal nature of the material is what he had in mind. I also found this fugue (and the Ab) to be brutally hard pianistically, so I think this jarring entry of the subject brings out the idea of a difficulty overcome which the G# fugue represents.

[fignewton]

Thank you for listening, Brogers70! I am very glad you enjoyed them.