This Hyperion recording comes close to the edge
mainFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
The Hyperion record label had its first hit many years ago with Tatiana Nikolayeva’s immersive account of the Preludes and Fugues Op 87. To all who know that epic album, I need only say that this recording comes close, very close. Almost to the edge of elsewhere….
Read on here.
And here.
Seriously…Preludes and FIGURES?
Go fugue… (I mean, go figure…)
Fugues.
“The Hyperion record label had its first hit many years ago with Tatiana Nikolayeva’s immersive account of the Preludes and Figures Op 87. ”
Wasn’t “its first hit” Kirkby singing Hildegard of Bingen?
That’s the one everyone remembers.
I don’t quite understand how a recording where the pianist plays far too fast ( one of the besetting sins of modern pianism ) can in the next breath be said to be as good as that of Nikolaeva
Good to know that Russia continues to produce, and Hyperion to record, pianists who play this music, including the somewhat rare first sonata.
Maria Yudina recorded her friend Shostakovich’s second sonata, dedicated to Leonid Nikolayev, their teacher at Leningrad Conservatory, with Vladimir Sofronitzki in their class.
Tatiana Nikoayeva recorded all these works except the first sonata, including the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, four times, once on film. I saw her play them here on two Sunday afternoons. Shostakovich himself recorded at least two-thirds of them and supposedly dedicated them to Nikolayeva, although all coress do not reflect this. There is a grand passacaglia in one of them.
The Op. 34 preludes include the E-flat minor that Stokowski orchestrated and recorded.