Music

The first complete Preludes and Fugues cycle in Hong Kong Inspired by JS Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Shostakovich’s magisterial keyboard cycle is a monument of 20th century piano literature. The vast range of textures, rhythmic devices, dynamics and characteristics requires superb skill and deep understanding of the music. With his multi-award winning Harmonia Mundi recording of the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues named by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the “50 Greatest Recordings of All Time ”, Alexander Melnikov has made these celebrated piano works his own. The nearly 3-hour commanding work has attracted many distinguished interpreters, including Vladimir Ashkenazy and Keith Jarrett, but no other pianist has approached with such virtuosity and audacity as Alexander Melnikov. Electrifying, almost rhapsodic, he reveals a dimension of Shostakovich which is romantic, sensitive and heroically big-hearted.