Shostakovich: Preludes for piano (24), Op. 34 (complete)

Dmitri Shostakovich won worldwide recognition as a composer of symphonies and chamber music. He was also a remarkable pianist. He only composed relatively little for that instrument and his keyboard music remained for a long time in obscurity. His Sonata n° 2 is classical and poetic, presented in traditional form and represents a break with the modernity of his 1st ; it shows that the Russian composer, while influenced by Prokofiev, Bartok or Hindemith, was also affected by Bach and Fauré. The 24 Preludes, a suite of brief intimist pictures of one page only in length, and which are seldom played in their entirety, but often transcribed for various instruments or orchestra, demonstrate that Shostakovich had the rare ability to compose short works in addition to his enormous symphonies. Johan Schmidt is, without a doubt, the best known Belgian pianist abroad: his interpretation, which can only be described as marvellous, means that this disc constitutes one of the outstanding reference versions.

Russian pianist Boris Petrushansky started lessons with legendary pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus in 1965 Moscow, a period of severe Soviet repression, the same cultural and social environment in which Shostakovich himself was captivated for his whole creative life. Like few others Petrushansky knows how to express the irony, the bitterness, but also the hope of Shostakovich’s piano works.

Petrushansky played with the world’s most famous orchestras and conductors (Gergiev, Abbado, Fedoseev, Salonen) and worked as partner with Leonid Kogan, Igor Oistrach, Misha Maisky and Dmitri Sitkovetsky. He is also active as professor at the famous Imola piano school in Italy.

[recorded 1992-2003, licensed from Stradivarius]