Rating: 5/5
Verdict: Charismatic Russian pianist in superb form for major Shostakovich recording.
Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov is a familiar visitor to our shores, both as recitalist and concerto soloist, and his latest recording is some compensation for his not being in our concert halls this year.
Tackling Shostakovich's mammoth two-hour set of 24 Preludes and Fugues has been a three-year project and Melnikov is a little prickly when questioned about the legendary recording of the work by Tatiana Nikolaeva, for whom it was written.
In fact, back in 1950-51, Shostakovich was inspired as much by Nikolaeva's playing of Bach, as by Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, which is the obvious model for this score.
While most pianists are content to have sleeve-notes supplied by others - the best being the piece-by-piece analysis that Wilfrid Mellers provided for Keith Jarrett's ineffably cool ECM set in the early 90s - Melnikov provides his own.
He reminds us that Shostakovich was no mean pianist himself and a disappointed contestant at the 1927 International Chopin Competition; his writing for piano, although not extensive, is deeply personal.
Melnikov also points out that the Fugues were all text-book models, "school fugues" as he puts it.
Yet over and over again with Melnikov's persuasive interpretations, one would never suspect it. Sample the coruscating torrents of the G major Fugue or the gentle modal ambience of the C sharp minor, and any thoughts of rules and regulations become laughable.
Melnikov is one of the great virtuosi of our time and one remembers his magisterial account of the Brahms D minor Concerto last year with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He brings the same brilliance, track after track, to Shostakovich, from the forthright thrust of the G sharp minor Fugue to its dizzying D flat major colleague.
The Preludes are infused with such individuality, and a good deal more whimsy than one might have expected. None is more startling than the ultra-romanticised C major Prelude that opens the set, less Sarabande than mood poem, perfectly complemented by the most meditative of fugues.
This beautifully presented two-disc set, with a bonus DVD that offers you Melnikov in conversation with, of all people, fortepianist Andreas Staier, must be high priority on any want list.
